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THOMAS   ALVA   EDISON 


THE    TELEGRAPH-BOY 
WHO    BECAME   A   GREAT    INVENTOR 


BY 

E.    C.    KENYON 

AUTHOR   OF   '  BRAVE  BOYS   AND  Gt^^S*'    *  THE   LITTLE   KNIGHT,'   ETC. 


NEW  YOEK 

THOMAS    WHITTAKER 

2   J±?XT>    3    BIBLE   HOUSE 

1 


T-/< 


O'NEILL  LIBRAE   «Jef9tt88 
BOSTON  COLLEGE 


Chapter  Page 

I.  FIRST   WORK   AS   A   NEWSBOY 7 

II.  THE  YOUNG   NEWSPAPER   EDITOR 15 

III.  LEARNING   THE  TELEGRAPH l8 

IV.  EARLY   INVENTIONS 27 

V.  AT   LOUISVILLE 30 

VI.  BOSTON   EXPERIENCES 34 

VII.  QUADRUPLEX   TELEGRAPHY 40 

VIII.  FROM    POVERTY   TO   RICHES „ 43 

IX.  NEWARK   LABORATORY   AND   FACTORY 47 

X.  MARRIAGE 5 1 

XI.  DIVERS   INVENTIONS 53 

XII.  THE   PHONOGRAPH 65 

XIII.  ELECTRIC   RAILROADING 77 

XIV.  ELECTRIC   LIGHT 80 

XV.  EDISON   AS   A  WORKER  AND   EMPLOYER 94 

XVI.  THE   ORANGE   LABORATORY 102 

XVII.  THE   KINETOSCOPE  AND   KINETOGRAPH 108 

XVIII.  ORE-MILLING,    ETC II3 

XIX.  CONCLUSION — EDISON'S   PRESENT   SURROUNDINGS 120 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Page 


Edison  in  his  Library Frontispiece 

Edison  with  his  Phonograph 67 

Transmitting  Cornet  Solo  in  the  Phonograph 72 

Transmitting  Piano  Solo  in  the  Phonograph. 73 


THOMAS    ALVA    EDISON. 


CHAPTER    I. 


FIRST   WORK   AS   A   NEWSBOY. 


HOMAS  ALVA  EDISON,  the  world's  greatest 
living  inventor  and  electrician,  was  born  at  Milan, 
a  dull  little  canal  town  in  Erie  County,  Ohio,  on 
the  nth  of  February  1847.  On  his  father's  side  he  was 
descended  from  an  excellent  family  of  Dutch  millers,  who 
emigrated  Yrom  Amsterdam  to  America  about  the  year 
1737.  They  were  men  who  lived  long  lives — Edison's 
great-grandfather  lived  to  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  two 
years,  and  his  grandfather  one  hundred  and  three— and 
from  them  he  inherited  the  great  physical  powers  of 
strength  and  endurance  which  have  marked  his  wonder- 
ful and  chequered  career.  Edison's  father,  Samuel  Edison, 
was  a  nurseryman,  dealer  in  grain,  in  lumber,  and  in 
farm  lands,  and  later,  a  produce  merchant. 

Edison's  mother's  maiden  name  was  Nancy  Elliot.  She 
was  by  birth  a  Scotchwoman,  and  she  had  been  brought 
up  and  educated  in  Canada.  She  had  a  sweet  yet 
strong  individuality,  and   having   received  a  good   solid 


8  FIRST   WORK   AS   A    NEWSBOY. 

education  in  the  Canadian  High  Schools,  she  became  a 
teacher  there,  in  which  capacity  she  displayed  great  ability, 
before  marrying  Samuel  Edison. 

It  is  said  that  there  was  a  very  special  love  between 
Mrs  Edison  and  her  son  Thomas.  She  loved  his  very 
presence,  and  partly  for  that  reason,  and  partly  because 
of  the  poverty  which  came  upon  them  before  long,  she 
kept  the  boy  at  home,  and,  except  for  two  months'  school- 
ing, taught  him  entirely  herself.  With  her  he  learned  not 
only  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  but  also  the  great 
object  of  learning.  For  she  implanted  in  his  mind  a 
love  of  learning,  a  hunger  for  knowledge,  which  is  the  end 
of  all  true  education.  To  her  young  Edison  owed  the 
early  teaching  and  training  which  gave  his  mind  its  strong 
bent  towards  invention  and  enterprise.  His  father,  too, 
was  so  interested  in  the  boy's  education,  that,  by  way  of 
encouraging  him  to  read,  whilst  reading  was  for  Tom  a 
toilsome  and  difficult  matter,  he  paid  him  for  every 
book  he  perused.  Happy  boy,  to  have  such  parents ! 
Their  intelligent  sympathy,  and  the  tuition  of  the  mother, 
caused  him  to  become  a  great  reader,  and  then  practically 
he  took  his  education  into  his  own  hands,  and  read  every- 
thing he  came  across. 

An  amusing  story  of  his  early  childhood  is  given  to  us 
on  the  authority  of  his  only  sister.  When  he  was  only  six 
years  old,  he  found  that  a  goose  belonging  to  the  family 
was  sitting,  and,  a  little  later,  saw  the  astonishing  result 
in  some  goslings.  He  studied  this  wonderful  occurrence 
in  his  little  mind.  Then  one  day  he  was  missing.  He 
was  sought  everywhere,  but  no  one  could  find  him,  until 
at  length  his  father  discovered  him  curled  up  in  a  sort  of 
nest  he  had  made  for  himself  in  the  barn,  and  filled  with 
goose  and  hen  eggs.     He  was  keeping  them  as  warm  as 


FIRST   WORK   AS    A    NEWSBOY.  9 

he  could ;  in  fact,  the  little  boy  was  sitting  on  the  eggs  and 
trying  to  hatch  them  ! 

He  was  an  ingenious  little  fellow,  and,  even  when  he 
was  at  play,  showed  the  mechanical  turn  of  his  mind  by 
building  plank  roads,  digging  caves,  and  exploring  the 
banks  of  the  canal.  But  the  play  had  to  be  soon 
exchanged  for  hard  work,  for,  when  he  was  only  seven 
years  old,  a  wide-spread  depression  in  commercial  affairs 
caused  his  father  to  become  poorer,  and  in  consequence 
of  this  he  left  his  picturesque  home  in  Milan,  and  took  his 
family  to  live  in  the  town  of  Port  Huron,  Michigan. 
Here  the  boy  was  early  set  to  work  to  earn  his  own  living, 
but  still  he  devoted  every  moment  he  could  to  the 
improvement  of  his  mind. 

'  I  'm  a  bushel  of  wheat !  I  weigh  eighty  pounds,'  he 
said,  thoughtfully,  to  his  mother  one  day  when  he  was 
only  twelve  years  old.  And  the  observation  showed  that 
he  had  already  begun  to  compare  things  with  each  other  in 
an  old-fashioned,  business-like  manner. 

Soon  after  that  he  became  a  newsboy  on  the  Grand 
Trunk  Railway  running  into  Detroit.  It  was  a  busy  life. 
The  American  newsboys  not  only  show  themselves  and 
their  wares  at  the  railway  stations,  but  accompany  the 
trains.  In  American  trains  there  is  an  outside  passage 
from  one  carriage  to  another,  upon  which  people  can 
walk  up  and  down.  As  soon  as  passengers  have  taken 
their  seats  and  have  comfortably  ensconced  themselves 
amongst  their  wraps  and  rugs,  they  naturally  begin  to 
wonder  with  what  they  shall  beguile  the  tedious  time  of 
travelling.  Then  the  newsboy,  passing  from  one  carriage 
to  another,  stands  at  their  elbow,  with  his  tempting  display 
of  papers.  Whilst  the  passenger  is  reading  his  newspaper, 
a  little   later   on,  he   perhaps  feels  thirsty,  and  looking 


10  FIRST   WORK   AS    A   NEWSBOY. 

round,  lo  !  there  stands  the  newsboy  again  before  him, 
this  time  with  a  tray  or  basket  of  fruits  and  sweets,  which 
they  call  candies.  Edison,  with  his  bright  smiling  face 
and  business  manner,  made  a  capital  little  newsboy. 

When  talking  of  these  young  days  of  his,  he  was  once 
asked,  '  Were  you  one  of  the  kind  of  train-boys  who  sell 
figs  in  boxes  with  bottoms  half  an  inch  thick?' 

To  which  question  he  replied,  with  a  merry  twinkle  of 
his  shrewd  gray  eyes,  'If  I  recollect  right,  the  bottoms 
of  my  boxes  were  a  good  inch/ 

At  the  stations  at  which  the  train  stopped,  the  young 
newsboy  would  spring  on  the  platform,  and  sell  his  wares 
to  any  one  who  would  buy.  He  had  secured  the  exclusive 
right  as  news-agent  upon  that  line. 

At  Detroit  he  obtained  access  to  the  Free  Library,  and 
was  so  delighted  with  the  sight  of  unlimited  numbers  of 
bcoks  that  he  conceived  the  idea  of  reading  the  entire 
library,  taking  the  books  as  they  came.  He  stuck  at 
nothing,  reading  straight  on,  and  had  actually  read  through 
fifteen  feet  of  books  before  his  friends  discovered  what  he 
was  about  and  checked  his  proceedings.  Amongst  the 
books  he  read  were  Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy ; 
Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire;  Hume's 
History  of  England ;  History  of  the  Reformation;  Ure's 
Dictionary  of  the  Sciences ;  the  Penny  Cyclopcedia;  and 
Newton's  Principia — which  last,  however,  he  could  not 
understand.  Like  a  wise  lad,  therefore,  he  inquired  of 
one  who  did,  and  a  comparatively  uneducated  man  gave 
him  a  simple  and  satisfactory  explanation.  '  This  man/ 
said  Edison  afterwards,  '  explained  the  problem  to  me  by 
the  use  of  very  simple  language,  and  without  the  employ- 
ment of  mathematics.  I  at  once  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  Newton  could  have  dispensed  his  knowledge  in  a 


FIRST   WORK   AS   A    NEWSBOY.  II 

much  wider  field  had  he  known  less  about  figures.'  This, 
he  went  on  to  say,  gave  him  a  distaste  for  mathematics 
from  which  he  never  recovered. 

Meanwhile,  his  interest  in  chemistry  continued.  He 
managed  to  become  the  proud  possessor  of  retorts 
and  other  apparatus,  and  obtaining  the  use  of  an  old 
baggage-car,  turned  it  into  a  laboratory.  In  this  place  he 
spent  much  of  his  spare  time  in  experiments  which  caused 
him  both  wonder  and  delight. 

Al,  as  young  Edison  was  called  by  his  fellow-workers 
on  the  railroad,  was  a  good  son  to  his  parents,  and 
delighted  to  take  home  to  them  as  much  of  his  earnings 
as  possible.  He  also  wanted  money  with  which  to  buy 
the  chemicals  to  make  his  experiments.  Having  no 
friends  who  could  assist  him  pecuniarily,  he  knew  that 
he  must  depend  upon  his  own  exertions.  Early  and 
late,  therefore,  he  worked  upon  the  train,  and  in  the 
stations,  at  selling  his  newspapers.  But  at  first  he 
did  not  earn  much  money  by  it.  He  had  to  be 
very  careful  that  he  did  not  buy  more  papers  than  he 
could  sell  in  his  very  limited  sphere  of  operations ;  and 
yet  he  could  not  afford  to  take  too  few,  as  they  would  have 
been  all  sold  before  reaching  the  end  of  the  trip.  This 
set  the  boy  thinking.  It  was  plain  that,  to  insure  a  good 
sale  of  newspapers,  something  must  be  done  to  arouse  the 
attention  of  his  little  public.  The  time  was  favourable  for 
making  a  sensation.  The  Civil  War  between  the  Northern 
and  Southern  States  was  at  its  height,  and  the  press  was 
full  to  overflowing  with  exciting  news.  He  is  clever  who 
knows  how  to  seize  an  opportunity  and  make  use  of  it. 
Edison  quickly  formed,  and  proceeded  to  carry  out,  a 
capital  plan. 

Making  a  friend  of  one  of  the  compositors  in  the  Free 


12  FIRST   WORK   AS    A   NEWSBOY. 

Press  office,  he  persuaded  the  man  to  show  him  every  day 
a  first  proof  of  the  most  important  news  article.  Then, 
from  a  study  of  its  headlines,  he  soon  learned  to  gauge  the 
value  of  the  news  and  its  selling  capacity,  so  as  to  be 
able  to  form  a  pretty  correct  idea  of  the  number  of  papers 
he  would  need.  Generally  he  could  only  dispose  of  about 
two  hundred,  unless  there  was  any  special  news  from  the 
seat  of  war,  when  he  found  he  could  sell  about  three 
hundred. 

One  day,  the  friendly  compositor  showed  him  a  proof 
slip  containing  a  huge  headline.  It  was  the  first  report  of 
the  battle  of  Pittsburgh  Landing,  and  it  gave  the  number  of 
killed  and  wounded  as  fifty  thousand. 

Grasping  the  situation  at  once,  Edison  saw  that  there 
would  be  a  chance  of  enormous  sales  of  his  newspapers,  if 
only  he  could  get  the  people  along  the  line  acquainted 
with  what  had  happened.  How  could  he  let  them  know  ? 
By  what  means  could  he  create  in  them  an  intense  eager- 
ness to  get  his  newspapers?  The  idea  of  telegraphing 
the  news  before  he  followed  with  the  papers  flashed  across 
his  mind. 

Instantly  running  over  to  a  telegraph  operator,  he  made 
a  bargain  with  him.  He  was  to  wire  to  each  of  the 
principal  stations  on  the  line,  asking  the  station-master  to 
chalk  on  the  blackboard,  upon  which  was  usually  notified 
the  times  of  the  departure  and  arrival  of  trains,  the  tidings 
of  the  great  battle,  with  its  enormous  loss  of  life.  In 
exchange  for  this  favour,  young  Edison  agreed  to  supply 
the  operator  with  a  Harper's  Weekly,  a  Harper's  Monthly, 
and  a  daily  evening  paper  for  six  months  from  that  date. 

This  bargain  made,  and  the  telegraph  operator  instructed 
to  do  his  part  immediately,  Edison  turned  to  the  next 
point,  which  was  to  gain  possession  of  all  the  papers  he 


FIRST   WORK   AS   A   NEWSBOY.  1 3 

required  for  his  great  effort.  This  was  a  matter  of  no 
small  difficulty,  for  he  had  very  little  money,  and  who  was 
likely  to  trust  a  poor  lad  like  him  ?  However,  he  boldly 
went  to  the  superintendent  of  the  delivery  department, 
and  asked  for  one  thousand  copies  of  the  Free  Press,  to  be 
paid  for  after  they  were  sold. 

The  request  was  curtly  and  promptly  refused. 

Edison's  need  was  great;  he  saw  a  small  fortune  in 
prospect  if  he  could  but  get  the  papers.  At  last,  therefore, 
he  took  courage  to  go  up-stairs  to  the  office  of  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  Free  Press,  Mr  Wilbur  F.  Storey. 

1 1  told  him  who  I  was/  said  Edison,  when  he  after- 
wards related  the  story,  '  and  that  I  wanted  fifteen  hundred 
copies  of  the  paper  on  credit.  The  tall,  thin,  ascetic- 
looking  man  stared  at  me  for  a  moment,  and  then 
scratched  a  few  words  on  a  slip  of  paper.  "  Take  that 
down-stairs,"  he  said,  "  and  you  will  get  what  you  want." 
And  so  I  did.  Then  I  felt  happier  than  I  have  ever  felt 
in  my  life  since.' 

Taking  his  fifteen  hundred  newspapers  away  in  triumph, 
Edison  got  three  lads  to  help  him  to  fold  them.  Then 
he  went  to  his  train  with  his  newspapers,  in  great 
delight  ;  and  only  anxious  on  one  point,  and  that  was 
whether  his  friendly  telegraph  operator  had  kept  his 
promise. 

At  Utica,  about  twelve  miles  off,  where  the  train  stopped 
first,  he  usually  sold  two  papers  at  five  cents  (twopence 
halfpenny)  each.  But  now,  as  the  train  ran  into  the 
station,  upon  looking  eagerly  out,  he  thought  he  saw 
an  excursion  party,  for  the  platform  was  crowded  with 
people.  As  soon  as  they  perceived  him  with  some  of 
his  newspapers  in  his  hands,  they  began  to  gesticulate 
and  shout,  and  he  saw  they  were  clamouring  for  papers. 


14  FIRST   WORK    AS    A   NEWSBOY. 

Seizing  an  armful,  he  jumped  out,  and  very  soon  sold 
forty. 

The  next  station  was  Mount  Clemens.  Here  he  thought 
a  riot  must  be  going  on,  for  the  platform  was  crowded 
with  a  howling  mob.  But  he  soon  found  that  what  they 
wanted  was  news  of  the  battle  of  Pittsburgh  Landing. 
Those  who  had  friends  or  relations  fighting  there  were 
in  a  state  of  the  utmost  suspense  and  anxiety.  Doubling 
the  price  of  his  newspaper,  Edison  speedily  sold  a  hundred 
and  fifty  copies. 

At  other  stations  these  scenes  were  repeated.  But  the 
climax  was  reached  when  he  arrived  at  Port  Huron.  The 
station  there  was  a  mile  from  the  town,  towards  which  he 
at  once  proceeded  with  his  remaining  stock  of  newspapers. 
When  half-way  there,  he  met  a  crowd  of  people  hurrying 
towards  the  station,  and  recognised  at  once  that  they 
were  wanting  newspapers.  He  therefore  raised  the  price 
of  his  newspaper  to  a  quarter  of  a  dollar  (about  a  shilling) 
a  copy,  and  reaped  quite  a  small  fortune.  On  passing  a 
church  where  service  was  going  on,  the  whole  congregation 
turned  out,  and  bid  against  each  other  for  the  precious 
papers. 

'  You  can  understand,'  said  Edison,  long  afterwards, 
•  why  it  struck  me  then  that  the  telegraph  must  be  about 
the  best  thing  going,  for  it  was  the  telegraphic  notices 
on  the  bulletin  boards  that  had  done  the  trick.  I  deter- 
mined at  once  to  become  a  telegraph  operator.  But  if 
it  hadn't  been  for  Wilbur  F.  Storey  I  should  never  have 
fully  appreciated  the  wonders  of  electrical  science.' 

Thus  it  was  that  the  boy's  mind,  hitherto  inclined  to 
chemistry,  was  turned,  in  admiration  and  delight,  in  the 
direction  in  which  so  many  of  his  great  inventions  were 
to  lie. 


THE   YOUNG    NEWSPAPER    EDITOR. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    YOUNG    NEWSPAPER    EDITOR. 

HE  great  success  of  his  newspaper  enterprises 
encouraged  Edison  to  make  yet  another  venture. 
This  was  nothing  less  than  to  start  a  three-cent 
(three-halfpence)  newspaper  of  his  own,  to  be  called  the 
Grand  Trunk  Herald. 

Accordingly  he  procured  a  disused  set  of  old  type  and 
stereos,  which  had  been  in  the  possession  of  the  Detroit 
Free  Press,  and,  making  use  of  the  little  knowledge  of 
printing  gained  by  watching  what  was  going  on  in  the 
works  when  buying  his  papers,  he  began  to  set  up  and 
print  his  small  newspaper  in  his  old  luggage-car,  which 
he  made  his  office  and  workshop.  Patiently  and  per- 
severingly  he  worked,  until  at  last  he  could  proudly  look 
upon  the  newspaper  of  which  he  was  both  editor,  printer, 
and  publisher. 

The  journal  was  very  tiny,  only  twelve  by  sixteen  inches 
in  size.  It  was  filled  with  railway  gossip,  changes,  and 
general  information  which  was  likely  to  be  of  interest  to 
travellers.  The  news  was  contributed  by  the  railway  men, 
who  took  immense  interest  in  the  novel  enterprise,  and 
by  the  observant  young  editor  and  his  assistants — for, 
with  his  extended  newspaper-selling  business,  and  his  new 
editorial  and  publishing  duties,  young  Edison  now  found 
himself  obliged  to  employ  three  or  four  boys. 

'  My  news,'  said  Edison,  one  day,  to  Mr  Lathrop,  when 
speaking  of  this,  the  first  and  last  newspaper  that  was 


1 6  THE   YOUNG   NEWSPAPER    EDITOR. 

ever  published  on  a  train — '  my  news  was  so  purely  local, 
that  outside  the  cars  and  the  shops  I  don't  suppose  it 
interested  a  solitary  human  being.  But  I  was  very  proud 
of  my  bantling,  and  looked  upon  myself  as  a  Simon-pure 
literary  man.  My  items  used  to  run  like  this  :  "  John 
Robinson,  baggage-master  at  James's  Creek  Station,  fell 
off  the  platform  yesterday  and  hurt  his  leg.  The  boys 
are  sorry  for  John."  Or  it  might  be,  "No.  3  Burlington 
engine  has  gone  into  the  shed  for  repairs." ' 

A  facsimile  of  the  small  sheet  of  the  little  newspaper 
has  been  recently  published.  It  is  very  amusing,  and 
shows  how  many  items  can  be  found,  even  in  such  a 
limited  space  as  a  single  line  of  railway,  to  interest  those 
who  travel  upon  it.  And  also  we  perceive  the  crudity 
of  the  young  editor's  professional  powers.  One  leading 
article  reads  as  follows  : 

1  Premiums. — We  believe  that  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway 
give  premiums  every  six  months  to  their  engineers  who 
use  the  least  wood  and  coal  running  the  usual  journey. 
Now,  we  have  rode  with  Mr  E.  L.  Northrop,  one  of  their 
engineers,  and  we  do  not  believe  you  could  fall  in  with 
another  engineer  more  careful  or  attentive  to  his  engine, 
being  the  most  steady  driver  that  we  have  ever  rode 
behind  (and  we  consider  ourselves  some  judge,  having 
been  railway-riding  for  over  two  years  constantly),  always 
kind  and  obliging,  and  ever  at  his  post.  His  engine,  we 
understand,  does  not  cost  one-fourth  for  repairs  what  the 
other  engines  do.  We  would  respectfully  recommend  him 
to  the  kindest  consideration  of  the  G.  T.  R.  Offices.' 

Another  leading  article  is  about  a  clever  porter  who 
does  the  work  of  two.  One  item  concerns  somebody's 
lost  luggage,  another  the  daily  stage  which  meets  the  train 
at  a  particular  place.     The  prices  of  provisions  at  some 


THE   YOUNG    NEWSPAPER    EDITOR.  1 7 

important   town    are    mentioned.      Also   anecdotes    and 
epigrams  fill  up  spare  columns  and  odd  corners. 

The  paper  became  quite  popular  up  and  down  the  line, 
and  reached  a  circulation  of  about  four  hundred.  Its 
fame  reached  England,  and  the  Times  gave  it  a  com- 
mendatory notice,  whilst  Robert  Stephenson,  the  great 
engineer,  once  ordered  a  special  edition  of  it  for  himself. 

Money  began  to  flow  into  the  pockets  of  the  boy-editor 
from  this  source,  and  from  the  increased  sale  of  his  Detroit 
Free  Press  newspapers.  He  was  able  to  give  his  parents 
as  much  as  five  hundred  dollars  in  a  year.  But,  alas  !  this 
pecuniary  prosperity  was  not  to  last. 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  the  Grand  Trunk  Herald, 
Edison,  in  conjunction  with  another  lad  who  had  worked 
for  the  Port  Huron  Commercial,  began  to  publish  a  larger 
and  finer  journal,  entitled  Paul  Pry. 

This  last  paper  was  really  superior  to  the  other,  but 
a  boyish  love  of  fun  caused  the  young  editors  to  be  a 
little  too  personal  in  their  remarks  about  individuals. 
This  provoked  animosity,  and  one  day  a  contributed 
article  in  Paul  Pry  so  offended  a  subscriber  that,  when 
he  met  young  Edison  on  the  banks  of  the  St  Clair  River, 
he  picked  him  up  and  threw  him  in.  Being  a  good 
swimmer,  the  boy  soon  got  out  again,  but  now  he  felt 
heartily  tired  of  such  dangerous  editorial  pursuits,  and  so 
the  paper,  Paul  Pry,  came  to  an  untimely  end. 

The  same  year  Edison's  beloved  travelling  workshop, 
the  old  luggage- car,  was  taken  from  him.  It  happened 
in  this  way.  One  day,  when  he  was  hard  at  work,  the 
jolting  of  the  car,  which  had  no  springs,  upset  a  bottle 
of  phosphorus  and  hurled  it  violently  to  the  floor,  setting 
fire  to  the  car.  In  a  moment  all  was  in  a  state  of 
confusion. 

b 


1 8  THE   YOUNG    NEWSPAPER    EDITOR. 

It  was  not  difficult  to  extinguish  the  flames,  but  the 
conductor,  who  had  long  been  displeased  with  the  horrid 
smells  and  terrifying  noises  which  proceeded  from  Edison's 
car,  thought  it  a  good  opportunity  for  turning  him  out 
of  the  train.  In  a  very  short  time  indeed  the  poor  lad 
was  deposited  on  the  platform,  with  his  type,  chemicals, 
and  other  property  thrown  after  him.  The  worst  of  it 
was,  that  the  brutal  conductor,  in  his  rage,  gave  him, 
before  he  descended,  such  a  severe  box  on  the  ear,  that 
the  delicate  organ  of  hearing  was  injured  for  life  by 
the  act :  though  the  finest  surgical  skill  was  afterwards 
employed,  it  was  of  no  avail. 

Left  alone  and  desolate  amongst  the  fragments  of  his 
poor  belongings,  ill  dressed  and  ill  fed,  poor  young  Edison 
stood  looking  after  his  beloved  laboratory  and  workshop 
disappearing  in  the  distance.  He  felt  stunned  and  miser- 
ably disappointed.  Was  this  the  end  of  his  joyous  labours 
and  successful  experiments  ? 


CHAPTER    III. 

LEARNING   THE   TELEGRAPH. 


OUNG  Edison  had  too  brave  a  heart  to  be 
crushed  by  his  misfortunes,  heavy  and  unmerited 
as  they  were;  so,  presently,  picking  up  what 
remained  to  him  of  his  property,  he  set  off  towards  his 
home. 

He  had  not  lost  his  place  as  news-boy,  but  only  the 
privilege  of  using  the  old  luggage-car  as  his  laboratory 
or  workshop  ;  and  he  valued  that  very  much.  However, 
on  his  arrival  at  home,  his  good  mother  consoled  him 


LEARNING   THE    TELEGRAPH.  I 9 

immensely,  by  allowing  him  the  use  of  the  basement, 
or  cellar  kitchen,  belonging  to  the  house,  which  he  forth- 
with proceeded  to  fill  with  all  kinds  of  rubbish. 

Mrs  Edison  had  great  faith  in  her  son,  and  when  a 
neighbour  expostulated  with  her  upon  allowing  him  to 
bring  so  much  rubbish  home  with  him,  she  calmly  replied, 
'  The  world  will  hear  of  him  yet.'  Her  faith  in  him  has 
been  splendidly  justified  by  subsequent  events. 

And  now  the  boy's  mind,  released  from  its  editorial 
duties,  turned  with  more  longing  than  ever  to  the  desire 
of  mastering  the  wonderful  art  of  telegraphy.  Besides 
buying  and  reading  a  good  work  on  electricity,  in  the 
cellar  in  which  he  now  worked  he  began  to  make  experi- 
ments, together  with  his  friend  James  Ward. 

The  two  boys  actually  set  up  a  line  between  their 
homes,  made  of  an  ordinary  stove-pipe  wire,  insulated  with 
bottles,  and  crossed  under  a  busy  street  by  means  of  an 
old  cable  fished  up  from  the  bed  of  a  river.  A  piece 
of  spring  brass  furnished  the  key,  and  the  magnets  were 
wound  with  wire  wrapped  in  old  rags. 

But  what  were  the  boys  to  do  for  a  current?  Their 
first  attempt  to  make  one  was  by  means  of  a  couple  of  big 
cats.  Attaching  a  wire  to  their  legs,  they  rubbed  them 
vigorously  at  each  end  of  the  line.  This  device,  however, 
proved  to  be  a  failure;  the  cats,  as  Edison's  biographers 
remark,  refused  to  lend  themselves  to  the  pursuits  of 
science,  and  the  test  resulted  in  their  running  away.  But, 
we  are  told,  '  the  experiment  was  not  without  success ;  a 
tremendous  local  current  and  perfect  electric  arc  were 
produced,  but  it  would  not  work  the  line,  and  was 
abandoned.' 

Undaunted  by  failures,  however,  Edison  continued 
making  his  experiments,  and  bringing  home  to  his  cellar 


20  LEARNING   THE   TELEGRAPH. 

everything  which  he  fancied  might  be  useful  for  them. 
Of  money  to  buy  necessary  chemicals  he  had  little,  but, 
by  denying  himself  everything  but  the  barest  necessaries 
of  life,  he  found  means  to  buy  a  number  of  old  instru- 
ments and  other  materials.  In  his  working  hours  he  still 
went  on  with  his  former  employment  of  newspaper-selling 
on  the  Port  Huron  train,  running  from  Port  Huron  to 
Detroit,  and  returning  daily,  except  on  Sundays.  He  was 
still  successful  with  his  newspapers,  and  made  a  point  of 
leaving  at  least  one  dollar  of  his  day's  earnings  with  his 
parents  before  setting  off  again  in  the  morning. 

He  was  a  kind-hearted  lad,  ever  ready  to  help  another, 
and  by  this  time  he  had  many  friends  amongst  the  station- 
agents,  operators,  and  their  families  all  along  the  line. 
At  Mount  Clemens  station,  where  his  train  usually  stayed 
about  thirty  minutes,  as  it  did  the  freight-work  and  shunted 
there,  he  knew  several  people  very  well.  The  station- 
master,  Mr  J.  U.  Mackenzie,  had  a  nice  little  boy  of 
about  two  years  and  a  half  old,  called  Jemmy,  and,  in 
the  intervals  of  selling  his  papers,  young  Edison  would 
play  with  the  child. 

One  lovely  summer  morning,  in  the  year  1862,  about 
half-past  ten,  an  occurrence  took  place  which  was  of  much 
importance  to  the  ambitious  and  hard-working  newspaper- 
boy.  His  train  had  arrived  at  Mount  Clemens.  Letting 
its  passenger  and  luggage  car  stand  on  the  north  end  of 
the  station  platform,  the  pin  having  been  pulled  between 
the  luggage  and  first  box  car,  the  train  of  some  twelve  or 
fifteen  luggage-cars  went  forward,  and  then  backing  in 
upon  the  freight-house  siding,  took  out  a  box  car  (con- 
taining ten  tons  of  material),  and  pushed  it  so  that  its 
momentum  would  enable  it  to  reach  the  luggage-car  with- 
out any  brakesman  controlling  it. 


LEARNING  THE  TELEGRAPH.  21 

It  happened  that,  exactly  at  that  moment,  Edison,  who 
had  been  standing  watching  the  fowls  in  the  station-master's 
poultry  yard,  turned  round  and  perceived,  to  his  horror, 
that  little  Jemmy  Mackenzie  was  on  the  main  line.  The 
little  fellow  was  playing  in  the  sunshine,  and  throwing 
pebbles  over  his  head,  quite  ignorant  of  the  awful  danger 
he  was  in  from  the  rapidly  approaching  car. 

Dashing  his  newspapers  to  the  ground,  together  with  his 
cap,  Edison  quickly  sprang  forward  to  rescue  his  little 
friend,  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life. 

On  came  the  car,  but  Edison  was  just  able  to  throw 
himself  and  the  child  out  of  its  way.  They  fell  together, 
face  downwards,  and  with  such  force  as  to  drive  the 
particles  of  gravel  into  their  flesh,  but  happily  just  out  of 
reach  of  the  car  as  it  came  up.  An  eye-witness  declared 
that,  if  Edison  had  been  a  second  later,  he  would  have 
lost  a  foot  or  have  been  killed.  Indeed  the  car  struck 
the  heel  of  his  boot.  The  station-master  was  in  his  ticket- 
office  ;  but,  on  hearing  a  shriek,  he  came  out  of  it  in  time 
to  see  the  railway-men  carrying  the  two  boys  to  the  plat- 
form. 

Ah,  how  grateful  the  poor  father  was  !  He  was  a  poor 
man,  living,  as  so  many  railway  employees  do,  above  his 
means,  and  usually  spending  his  salary  before  he  received 
it  from  his  paymaster.  He  had  no  money  to  offer  the 
brave  rescuer  of  his  little  boy,  but  quickly  thought  of  a 
way  of  proving  his  gratitude. 

He  could  teach  the  poor  newspaper-lad  the  art  of  tele- 
graphy,^and  put  him  in  the  way  of  earning  a  good  salary 
as  a  telegraph  operator.  Much  to  Edison's  delight — for 
this  was  just  the  kind  of  help  that  he  wanted — he  at 
once  proposed  to  do  so. 

Edison   gratefully   accepted   the    welcome   offer.       Ah, 


2  2  LEARNING   THE    TELEGRAPH. 

how  hard  he  worked  now  !  After  plying  his  business  all 
day,  each  night,  on  coming  home  to  Port  Huron,  he 
returned  on  the  luggage  train  to  Mount  Clemens  to  learn 
his  new  work. 

For  about  ten  days  this  arrangement  was  carried  on  very 
satisfactorily;  then  Edison  did  not  turn  up  at  Mount 
Clemens  for  his  telegraph  lessons  for  several  days.  When 
he  did  come,  however,  he  brought  with  him  a  complete 
set  of  working  telegraph  instruments,  so  small  that  they 
would  not  cover  an  ordinary  envelope  in  size.  They  were 
perfect  in  their  way,  and  had  all  been  made  by  the  boy 
with  his  own  hands,  in  the  gun-shop  of  Messrs  Fisher  & 
Long  in  Detroit. 

Mrs  Mackenzie's  brother,  Rowland  Benner,  was  also 
learning  telegraphy  at  the  same  time,  and  he  and  Edison 
vied  with  each  other  in  their  efforts  to  excel. 

Benner  assisted  Edison  with  his  first  speculation.  This 
was  nothing  less  than  to  try  and  work  a  little  private 
telegraph  line  between  the  station  and  the  town.  The 
boys  made  their  telegraph  office  in  a  drug  store  in  the 
town,  using  the  instruments  Edison  had  made,  upon  a  line 
made  of  annealed  stove-pipe  wire,  upon  the  stakes  of  a 
rail  fence,  insulated  with  common  nails. 

In  dry  weather  this  line  worked  well  enough,  but  on 
damp,  wet  days  there  was  no  tick  to  be  heard.  The  young 
partners  fixed  a  tariff  of  twelve  and  a  half  cents  (about 
sixpence  halfpenny),  and,  during  the  first  months,  they 
took  in  the  munificent  sum  of  thirty-seven  and  a  half  cents 
(rather  more  than  eighteenpence),  after  which  they  found 
it  necessary  to  close  the  works,  as  Edison  was  then  about 
to  take  more  remunerative  work. 

Others  besides  the  station-master  at  Mount  Clemens 
assisted  Edison  in  his  telegraphic  education,  and  in  three 


LEARNING  THE  TELEGRAPH.  2$ 

months  he  understood  the  art  of  telegraphy  quite  well. 
He  used  to  frequent  the  Western  Union  Telegraphic  Office 
in  Port  Huron,  where  he  learned  much ;  and  it  was  then 
that  he  duplexed  the  workings  on  the  Grand  Trunk  Cable 
between  Port  Huron  and  Sarnia.  This  was  considered  a 
very  wonderful  feat,  and  was  a  great  convenience  to  the 
Grand  Trunk  Railroad,  as  it  made  their  business  much 
easier  to  work.  It  is  not  known,  however,  whether  Edison 
was  ever  paid  for  doing  this. 

Three  months  he  remained  at  Port  Huron,  working  hard 
and  proving  his  ability;  then  the  greediness  and  dis- 
honesty of  the  Western  Union  agent  so  disgusted  him  that 
he  would  work  no  more  for  him. 

The  following  incident  led  to  this  determination  on  his 
part.  The  Press  happened  to  be  all  eagerness  to  obtain 
an  exact  account  of  the  Presidential  address  to  Congress. 
It  accordingly  offered  the  Western  Union  agent  sixty 
dollars  if  he  would  obtain  it.  He  set  Edison  to  receive  it, 
promising  him  a  reward  of  twenty  dollars  (rather  more 
than  four  pounds).  This  was  a  large  sum  to  the  young 
telegraphist,  and  he  was  delighted  to  think  of  earning  it. 
What,  then,  was  his  dismay  when,  upon  his  finishing  the 
work,  his  chief  repudiated  the  bargain  and  would  not  pay 
the  money !  Nay,  more  than  that,  he  would  not  admit 
any  claim  for  extra  work. 

Leaving  his  service  at  once,  Edison  obtained,  through 
the  help  of  his  friend  Mr  Mackenzie,  a  situation  as  night 
telegraph  operator  on  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway,  with  a 
salary  of  twenty-five  dollars  a  month. 

Here  the  work  was  very  hard,  for  the  manager  under 
whom  Edison  worked  was  exceedingly  exacting.  One 
of  his  regulations  was  very  irksome  to  the  youth. 
This  was,  that  during  the  night,  as  a  precaution  against 


24  Learning  the  telegraph. 

drowsiness,  the  operators  were  required  to  report  the  word 
six  every  half-hour. 

Now  Edison  liked  to  ramble  about  Stratford,  its  neigh- 
bourhood, and  the  railway  stations,  when  he  was  not 
actually  at  work.  Whilst  doing  this,  of  course,  he  could 
not  report  the  word  six  every  half-hour.  Not  liking,  how- 
ever, to  give  up  his  beloved  rambles,  he  tried  to  think 
how  he  could  combine  duty  with  pleasure.  Then  it  was 
that  he  conceived  the  brilliant  idea  of  making  the  clock 
act  as  a  substitute  for  himself. 

After  a  little  puzzling  over  the  matter,  he  made  a  wheel 
with  notches  cut  in  it  at  its  outer  edge,  fixed  this  wheel  to 
the  clock,  and  then  connected  it  by  wires  with  the  chief 
line  circuit,  so  that  it  would  regularly  give  every  half-hour 
the  word  six. 

At  first  all  went  well;  but,  after  a  little  time,  it  was 
noticed  that  the  letters  sf  could  never  be  raised  immedi- 
ately after  six.  A  detective  operator  was  deputed  to  find 
out  the  cause  of  this,  with  the  result  that  Edison's  labour- 
saving  device  was  discovered. 

We  may  say  here  that  that  device  is  the  District  Tele- 
graph of  to-day,  for,  later,  it  was  patented,  and  sold  to  the 
American  District  Telegraph  Company. 

The  next  time  Edison  evaded  his  duty  by  a  device  he 
was  promptly  found  out.  The  telegraph  clerks  had  some- 
times the  order  to  stop  certain  trains,  and  then  give  infor- 
mation to  the  train-despatcher  of  their  arrival.  Not 
knowing  what  a  very  small  space  of  time  he  had  at  his 
disposal,  upon  one  occasion,  Edison  reversed  the  order, 
and  sent  word  to  the  train-despatcher  before  signalling  for 
the  train  to  stop.  The  consequence  was  that  the  train 
passed  the  station  without  stopping,  and  was  nearly  out  of 
sight  when  he  returned. 


LEARNING  THE  TELEGRAPH.  25 

Too  late  young  Edison  realised  the  danger  of  the  situa- 
tion, and  tried  to  get  to  a  certain  luggage  depot,  where 
trains  often  stopped,  hoping  that  there  he  would  be  able 
to  stop  the  progress  of  the  train. 

The  night,  however,  was  dark,  the  way  was  full  of 
obstructions,  and  he  was  much  too  frightened  to  see 
clearly.  In  the  end  he  fell  into  a  sort  of  open  drain,  and 
bruised  himself  severely,  and,  before  he  could  get  out,  the 
train  had  passed  out  of  sight. 

Wounded  and  breathless,  in  terrible  alarm,  he  tore 
across  to  the  telegraph  office,  where  word  was  instantly 
despatched,  although  it  was  not  in  time  to  prevent  the 
dreaded  collision,  which  would  have  taken  place  had  it  not 
been  for  the  exceeding  vigilance  of  both  engineers.  As  it 
was,  no  harm  was  done  to  the  train. 

Edison's  fault,  however,  was  of  too  grave  a  nature  to  be 
allowed  to  go  unpunished.  In  dire  displeasure  the  general 
manager,  Mr  W.  J.  Spicer,  sent  for  the  culprit. 

'  Young  man,'  said  Mr  Spicer,  '  this  offence  of  yours  is 
a  very  serious  one,  and  I  think  I  shall  make  an  example 
of  you.  I  can  send  you  to  the  penitentiary  for  five 
years ' 

Fortunately  for  Edison,  just  at  that  moment  two  English 
gentlemen  of  some  importance  came  in,  and  Mr  Spicer 
rose,  with  great  affability,  to  greet  them. 

Whilst  he  was  taken  up  with  talking  to  these  strangers, 
Edison  perceived  that  he  was  not  noticed  just  then,  and 
so  slipped  quietly  away  and  made  off  for  the  luggage 
depot,  where  he  found  a  train  just  on  the  point  of  starting 
for  Sarnia. 

Knowing  the  conductor  of  this  train,  Edison  told  him 
he  would  like  to  take  a  trip  up  the  line  with  him  as  far  as 
Sarnia. 


26  LEARNING  THE  TELEGRAPH.  . 

Thereupon  the  man  good-humouredly  bade  him  'jump 
aboard/  and  in  a  few  minutes  Edison  and  the  train  were 
out  of  sight  of  any  one  at  Stratford. 

\  My  pulse,'  said  Edison  afterwards,  '  didn't  get  down  to 
normal  work  until  the  ferry-boat  between  Sarnia  and  Port 
Huron  had  landed  us  in  the  latter  town.' 

Of  course  he  lost  the  wages  due  to  him,  but  that  was  a 
small  matter  compared  with  the  danger  he  had  escaped. 

Once  more  at  Port  Huron,  Edison  found  himself  able 
to  be  of  signal  service  to  the  telegraph-operators  there. 
The  winter  having  been  exceedingly  severe,  the  masses  of 
ice  had  formed  to  such  an  extent  and  with  such  force  as  to 
sever  the  cable  between  Port  Huron  and  the  city  of  Sarnia. 
The  river,  which  was  a  mile  and  a  half  wide  at  that  point, 
was  totally  impassable,  and  all  telegraphic  communications 
were  prevented.  But  Edison  was  not  to  be  daunted  by 
such  difficulties.  His  inventive  mind  soon  thought  of  a 
remedy.  He  would  make  short  and  long  sounds  express 
the  dots  and  dashes  of  telegraphy,  and  jumping  on  a 
locomotive,  he  made  the  whistle  sound  the  message. 

'  Halloo,  Sarnia ! '  he  said  in  this  way,  '  Sarnia,  do  you 
hear  what  I  say  ? ' 

At  first  there  was  no  response  from  the  Sarnian  operator. 

Again  and  again  the  short  and  long  toots  shaped  them- 
selves into  the  dots  and  dashes  of  telegraphy. 

The  spectators  on  the  bank  watched  with  immense 
excitement.  And  at  length  the  answer  came.  It  was 
perfectly  intelligible,  and  the  connection  between  the  two 
towns  was  once  more  open. 

Now,  young  Edison  began  to  be  talked  about,  and  his 
wonderful  abilities  were  recognised,  so  that  he  found  no 
difficulty  in  obtaining  employment. 


EARLY   INVENTIONS.  27 


CHAPTER     IV. 

EARLY    INVENTIONS. 


DISON  next  worked  as  a  telegraph  operator  at 
Adrian,  Michigan,  and  then  at  Fort  Wayne  and 
Indianapolis,  gaining  considerable  credit,  although 
his  love  of  fun  and  love  of  experimenting  often  caused 
him  to  break  the  rules  made  for  the  knights  of  the  key, 
as  those  who  used  the  Morse  alphabet  have  been  called. 

At  Indianapolis  he  got  into  serious  trouble  on  that 
account,  but  it  was  there  his  inventive  faculty  developed 
rapidly,  to  his  exceeding  satisfaction.  How  hard  he 
worked  !  At  an  age  when  food  and  sleep  are  so  necessary 
to  the  growth  and  well-being  of  the  young,  he  robbed 
himself  of  both,  that  he  might  toil  at  disentangling  the 
wonderful  discoveries  which  followed  one  another  in  suc- 
cession as  he  bent  his  active  mind  to  look  for  them. 

He  has  himself  described  the  invention  of  his  automatic 
recorder  in  a  conversation  with  Mr  Lathrop.  '  I  worked 
a  "  plug  circuit "  in  the  day-time  at  Indianapolis,'  he  said, 
'  and  got  a  small  salary  for  doing  it.  But  at  night,  with 
another  operator  called  Parmley,  I  used  to  receive  news- 
paper reports  just  for  the  practice.  The  regular  operator 
was  a  man  named  Williams ;  and,  as  he  was  given  to 
copious  libations,  he  was  glad  enough  to  sleep  off  the 
effects  while  we  did  his  work  for  him  as  well  as  we  could. 
I  would  sit  down  for  ten  minutes,  and  "  take  "  as  much  as 
I  could   from   the   instrument,   carrying   the   rest   in   my 


28  EARLY   INVENTIONS. 

memory.  Then  while  I  wrote  out,  Parmley  would  serve 
his  turn  at  "  taking,"  and  so  on.  This  worked  well  until 
they  put  a  new  man  on  at  the  Cincinnati  end.  He  was 
one  of  the  quickest  despatchers  in  the  business,  and  we 
soon  found  it  was  hopeless  to  try  to  keep  up  with  him. 
Then  it  was  that  I  worked  out  my  first  invention,  and 
necessity  was  certainly  the  mother  of  it. 

*  I  got  two  old  Morse  registers,  and  arranged  them  in 
such  a  way  that,  by  running  a  strip  of  paper  through  them, 
the  dots  and  dashes  were  recorded  on  it  by  the  first  instru- 
ment as  fast  as  they  were  delivered  from  the  Cincinnati  end, 
and  were  transmitted  to  us  through  the  other  instrument  at 
any  desired  rate  of  speed  or  slowness.  They  would  come 
in  on  one  instrument  at  the  rate  of  forty  words  a  minute, 
and  we  would  grind  them  out  of  the  other  at  the  rate  of 
twenty-five.  Then  weren't  we  proud  ?  Our  copy  used  to 
be  so  clean  and  beautiful  that  we  hung  it  up  on  exhibition ; 
and  our  manager  used  to  come  and  gaze  at  it  silently, 
with  a  puzzled  expression.  Then  he  would  depart,  shaking 
his  head  in  a  troubled  sort  of  way.  He  could  not  under- 
stand it,  neither  could  any  of  the  other  operators ;  for  we 
used  to  drag  off  my  impromptu  automatic  recorder  and 
hide  it  when  our  toil  was  over.  But  the  crash  came  when 
there  was  a  big  night's  work — a  Presidential  vote,  I  think 
it  was — and  copy  kept  pouring  in  at  the  top  rate  of  speed, 
until  we  fell  an  hour  and  a  half  or  two  hours  behind.  The 
newspapers  sent  in  frantic  complaints,  an  investigation  was 
made,  and  our  little  scheme  was  discovered.  We  couldn't 
use  it  any  more.' 

This  early  and  comparatively  rude  contrivance,  which 
was  only  meant  to  serve  a  temporary  and  very  practical 
purpose,  was  the  germ  whence  sprang,  later  on,  Edison's 
greatest    invention,    the    phonograph,    and   was   also   the 


EARLY    INVENTIONS.  2Q 

source  of  his  first  finished  invention,  'the  automatic 
repeating  telegraph.' 

The  immediate  result  of  Edison's  using  his  automatic 
recorder  at  Indianapolis,  however,  was  that,  when  his  device 
was  discovered,  he  was  dismissed  by  the  indiscriminate 
manager. 

At  Cincinnati,  however,  Edison  soon  obtained  another 
engagement  as  day  operator,  with  a  salary  of  sixty  dollars 
a  month.  Whilst  he  was  there  he  worked  at  night  practice 
whenever  he  could  obtain  the  use  of  the  wire. 

Several  Cleveland  operators  came  to  the  Cincinnati 
telegraph  office  one  day,  bent  upon  founding  a  local  branch 
of  the  telegraphists'  union.  This  occasioned  the  telegraph 
operators  to  try  to  promote  brotherly  feeling  between  the 
strangers  and  themselves  that  night,  by  the  mistaken  yet 
old-fashioned  plan  of  drinking  together.  Edison  had  no 
mind  for  such  revels,  so  he  returned  alone  to  the  office, 
where  no  one  was  to  be  seen  but  the  office-boy.  The 
Cleveland  wire  was  demanding  a  report,  but  at  first  Edison 
did  not  like  to  take  upon  himself  the  duty  of  supplying  it. 
After  a  while,  however,  he  resolved  to  do  so,  and  manipu- 
lated the  wire  with  his  usual  ability. 

Long  he  worked  during  the  silent  hours  of  the  night,  and 
the  next  morning,  by  eight  o'clock,  he  was  in  his  accus- 
tomed place  as  day  operator.  He  intended,  with  his  usual 
kindness  of  heart,  to  keep  the  conduct  of  his  fellow- 
telegraphists  secret,  but  the  office-boy  told  what  had 
happened.  Thereupon  Edison's  employers,  being  much 
pleased  with  his  behaviour,  gave  him  an  increased  salary  of 
one  hundred  and  five  dollars,  and  placed  the  important 
Louisville  wire  in  his  hands.  This  wire  carried  all  the 
southern  reports,  and  required  the  skill  of  an  expert. 
Edison  entered  into   brisk   competition  with  Mr  Robert 


30  EARLY    INVENTIONS. 

Martin,  a  gentleman  renowned  for  his  telegraphing  ability, 
and  this  was  for  Edison  a  very  advantageous  partnership. 

Memphis,  Tennessee,  was  the  next  place  to  which  young 
Edison  moved.  Here  he  received  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  dollars  a  month,  as  well  as  rations.  But  he 
did  not  remain  long  at  this  place,  for  his  wonderful  clever- 
ness, which  excited  admiration  in  those  who  were  just  and 
generous,  exposed  him  here,  as  elsewhere,  to  the  jealousy 
and  distrust  of  a  narrow-minded  and  selfish  master. 

It  happened  that,  when  Edison  arrived,  the  manager 
was  trying  in  vain  to  make  a  repeater  of  his  own  invention 
more  perfect  Edison  at  once  began  to  make  experiments, 
which  were  so  successful  that  the  result  was  that  Louisville 
and  New  Orleans  were  connected  for  the  first  time  by 
telegraphy.  Enraged  at  Edison's  great  success  in  a  matter 
in  which  he  had  failed,  the  mean-spirited  manager  brought 
a  false  charge  against  the  youth,  which  led  to  his  dismissal. 


CHAPTER     V. 

AT    LOUISVILLE. 


WILL  walk  to  Louisville,'  thought  penniless, 
sore-hearted  Edison,  who  was  still  only  seven- 
teen years  of  age,  and  forthwith  set  out  to 
tramp  a  hundred  miles,  and  then  obtain  free  conveyance 
for  the  remainder  of  the  way. 

His  dismissal  had  come  at  a  bad  time  for  him.  As 
much  of  his  salary  as  he  had  not  sent  home  was  spent  in 
books  and  instruments,  and  his  dress  was  in  a  truly 
dilapidated  condition.     His  health,  too,  was  suffering  from 


AT    LOUISVILLE.  3 1 

the  strain  of  much  labour  and  sleepless  nights.  But  his 
indomitable  spirit  sustained  him. 

On  the  way  a  young  operator,  named  William  Foley, 
joined  him  at  Nashville,  and  the  two  went  on  their  journey 
together  until  they  reached  Louisville. 

It  was  a  cold  and  cheerless  morning  in  the  beginning  of 
winter  when  the  two  lads  entered  the  great  city  with  its 
ice-bound  streets.  A  church-bell  was  clanging  the  hour  of 
six.  Faint  with  cold  and  hunger,  weary  with  walking, 
disheartened  by  ill-treatment,  in  broken  shoes  and  torn 
clothing,  Edison  presented  himself  at  the  telegraph  office 
and  asked  for  work.  His  appearance  was  against  him,  and 
he  was  naturally  regarded  with  distrust,  if  not  contempt. 
However,  his  bright  and  earnest  manner  made  them  listen 
to  him,  and  the  tests  of  skill  which  he  proceeded  to  give 
the  manager  were  so  good  that  he  was  forthwith  engaged 
as  operator. 

His  new  fellow-workers  being  vulgar  and  unprincipled, 
were  inclined  to  ridicule  one  so  poor  and  rustic-looking,  but 
in  time  his  unfailing  kindness  and  studious  hard-working 
habits  won  their  respect  and  liking. 

Edison  continued  in  that  situation  two  years.  One 
little  break  in  that  time  was,  however,  caused  by  his  giving 
credence  to  rumours  that  came  to  the  city  of  the  wonderful 
resources  of  Southern  America,  which  made  him  start  off 
for  that  country  with  two  friends.  At  New  Orleans,  how- 
ever, he  met  an  old  and  experienced  traveller,  who  persuaded 
him  to  return  home,  saying  that  he  would  not  find  a  better 
government,  climate,  or  people  anywhere  than  in  the 
United  States.  After  a  short  interval,  therefore,  he 
resumed  work  at  Louisville,  and  here  he  soon  had  a 
laboratory,  printing  office,  and  machine  shop  in  which  he 
could  work.     He  went  to  second-hand  book  stores,  and 


32  AT    LOUISVILLE. 

collected  quite  a  library  of  books.  He  took  press  reports; 
on  one  occasion  taking  the  Presidential  message  and  veto 
of  the  District  of  Columbia  Bill  by  Andrew  Johnson  at 
one  sitting,  which  lasted  from  3.30  p.m.  to  4.30  a.m.  Then 
he  paragraphed  the  matter  received  over  the  lines,  so  that 
each  printer  had  three  lines  to  do,  and  a  column  could  be 
set  up  in  two  or  three  minutes.  For  this  the  Louisville 
press  gave  him  a  dinner,  and  he  was  accorded  several 
privileges. 

Once,  when  a  new  man  knocked  him  down  for  trying 
to  limit  his  indulgence  in  strong  drink,  Edison's  fellow- 
operators  fell  upon  the  man,  and  thrashed  him  so  severely 
that  he  had  to  go  to  the  hospital  for  three  weeks. 

As  soon  as  Edison  got  a  little  better  off  as  regards 
money,  his  kindly  disposition  made  him  so  generous  to 
others  that  he  was  sometimes  not  a  little  sponged  upon. 
The  demoralisation  caused  by  the  war  led  many  telegraphists 
to  tramp  from  city  to  city  in  search  of  work,  which  their 
unsteady  habits  soon  caused  them  to  lose  again.  Mindful 
of  his  own  '  tramp '  in  search  of  employment,  Edison  would 
offer  food  and  lodging  to  such  poor  fellows.  And  it  was 
they  who  oftenest  imposed  upon  his  good  nature. 

One  day  he  bought  fifty  volumes  of  the  North  American 
Review  at  an  auction  sale,  placed  them  in  his  room,  and 
went  out  again  to  his  work.  During  his  absence  six 
telegraph  operators,  whom  he  was  sheltering  at  the  time, 
thought  they  would  make  use  of  his  new  purchase.  Accord- 
ingly, they  carried  the  books  to  a  pawn-shop  and  procured 
drink  with  the  money  raised  upon  them.  History  does  not 
describe  Edison's  feelings  when  he  found  himself  thus 
wronged,  or  the  way  in  which  he  treated  the  rascals  for 
abusing  his  hospitality. 

Another  time,  on  coming  home  from  a  night's  work,  he 


AT    LOUISVILLE.  33 

found  the  furniture  in  his  room  absolutely  wrecked,  and 
two  of  his  visitors  in  bed  with  their  boots  on. 

Edison  pulled  them  out,  and  left  them  to  cool  upon  the 
floor. 

Once  when  he  was  returning  in  the  night  from  an  auction 
sale,  with  a  load  of  books  upon  his  shoulders,  a  policeman 
took  him  for  a  burglar,  and  shouted  to  him  to  stop.  Being 
deaf,  Edison  did  not  hear  him,  and  consequently  took  no 
notice  of  the  shout,  whereupon  the  policeman  fired  a  pistol 
shot.  Then,  coming  up  to  Edison,  he  recognised  him,  and 
allowed  him  to  pass  on. 

Whilst  Edison  was  at  Louisville  he  published  his  first 
electrical  treatise,  and  learned  a  very  rapid  style  of  pen- 
manship, which  enabled  him  to  write  clearly  and  legibly 
forty-five  words  a  minute. 

After  a  while  the  old  telegraph  office  was  exchanged  for 
a  spacious  building,  well  fitted  up  with  every  kind  of 
appliance.  But  with  these  improvements  came  more 
stringent  regulations.  The  instruments  and  chemicals 
were  required  to  be  kept  strictly  in  their  places.  As  often 
before,  Edison,  whilst  intent  upon  inventing,  disregarded 
these  regulations.  One  night  he  went  into  the  battery- 
room  to  obtain  some  sulphuric  acid  for  an  experiment  he 
was  making.  In  getting  the  acid,  he  unfortunately  upset  it. 
The  consequences  were  truly  alarming.  In  his  own  words, 
'the  acid  in  the  carboy  tipped  over,  ate  the  floor,  and 
went  down  to  the  manager's  room  below,  ate  up  his  desk 
and  all  the  carpet.' 

The  next  morning  Edison  was  dismissed.  The  Board 
before  which  he  was  summoned  said  witheringly  that  they 
wanted  telegraph  operators,  not  experimenters. 


34  BOSTON    EXPERIENCES. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

BOSTON    EXPERIENCES. 

DISON'S  next  situation  as  telegraph  operator  was 
at  Cincinnati.  There  a  machine-shed  belonging 
to  the  railway  company  was  so  near  the  telegraph 
office  that  the  temptation  to  experiment  with  an  engine, 
and  study  its  mechanism  and  capability,  proved  irresistible. 
One  night,  when  the  engine-driver  and  fireman  had  fallen 
asleep,  Edison  borrowed  one  of  the  larger  engines,  and 
drove  it  a  certain  distance  along  the  line  and  back  again. 
Perhaps  he  would  not  have  been  discovered  had  not 
inexperience  caused  him  to  over-fill  the  boiler,  so  that 
it  sent  out  a  discharge  of  dirty  water  and  soot,  which 
afterwards  betrayed  him.  But  he  obtained  valuable 
knowledge  in  this  and  other  ways,  which  eventually 
led  to  his  invention  of  electrical  railroading. 

After  a  while  he  went  to  Port  Huron  for  eighteen 
months,  where,  in  a  situation  as  telegraph  clerk,  he  con- 
tinued experimenting  and  making  inventive  schemes,  at 
the  same  time  reading  as  much  as  he  could  from  books 
supplied  by  the  local  library. 

Sometimes  Edison  has  been  spoken  of  as  a  discoverer, 
but  he  did  not  like  that  word  applied  to  himself.  *  Dis- 
covery is  not  invention,'  he  said.  And  again, c  A  discovery 
is  more  or  less  the  nature  of  an  accident;'  adding,  '  It  is 
too  much  the  fashion  to  attribute  all  inventions  to  accident, 
and  a  great  deal  of  nonsense  is  talked  on  that  score.     In 


BOSTON    EXPERIENCES.  35 

my  own  case  but  few,  and  those  the  least  of  my  inventions, 
owed  anything  to  accident.  Most  of  them  have  been 
hammered  out  after  long  and  patient  labour,  and  are  the 
result  of  countless  experiments,  all  directed  towards  attain- 
ing some  well-defined  object.'  Thus  we  see  that  the  crude 
experiments  of  his  early  youth  were  often  the  germs  whence 
sprang,  later  on,  the  wonderful  world-helping  inventions 
which  have  made  him  without  question  the  greatest  living 
inventor. 

Whilst  at  Port  Huron,  Edison  made  a  clever  device 
whereby  a  submarine  cable  could  be  used  for  two  circuits, 
this  causing  a  considerable  monetary  saving.  The  Grand 
Trunk  Railway  adopted  this  invention,  and  gave  him  a  free 
pass  to  Boston,  where  Mr  Milton  Adams,  his  good  friend, 
procured  him  a  situation  in  the  Franklin  office. 

As  usual  Edison,  now  twenty-one  years  old,  was  very 
short  of  money,  the  home  claims  upon  him,  his  generosity 
to  others,  and  the  cost  of  his  scientific  appliances,  having 
absorbed  all  his  earnings.  His  appearance,  therefore, 
upon  arriving  at  Boston  in  his  old,  well-worn  clothes,  after 
a  four  days'  journey,  was  anything  but  prepossessing. 

'When  shall  you  be  ready  to  begin  work?'  asked  the 
manager,  when  he  arrived  at  the  telegraph  office. 

1  Now,'  replied  the  young  man. 

He  was  then  told  to  return  at  5.50  p.m. 

Accordingly  he  did  so,  and,  after  having  been  introduced 
to  the  night  manager,  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  night 
staff  with  whom  he  was  to  work.  These  men  were  much 
amused  at  his  shabby  appearance,  and,  dubbing  him 
'  a  jay  from  the  woolly  West,'  thought  that  they  would  have 
a  joke  at  his  expense.  After  consulting  together,  they 
gave  him  a  pen,  and  assigned  him  the  New  York  No.  1 
wire.     Then,  after  some  little  delay,  he  was  called  over  to 


36  BOSTON    EXPERIENCES. 

a  table  to  take  a  special  report  for  the  Boston  Herald. 
Now  the  plotters  had  arranged  that,  for  his  discomfiture, 
one  of  the  fastest  senders  in  New  York  should  send  him 
the  despatch.  Edison  sat  down  and  began  to  work.  He 
had  long  since,  as  we  have  seen,  attained  to  a  very  rapid 
style  of  writing,  and  had  perfected  it  to  such  an  extent  that 
he  could  increase  it  from  forty-five  to  fifty-four  words  a 
minute,  by  writing  smaller  and  smaller  as  he  proceeded.  At 
first  the  New  York  operator  began  to  send  slowly,  then  he 
increased  his  speed.  Edison  gradually  adapted  his  pace 
to  the  sender's.  The  latter  soon  sent  at  his  very  fastest. 
Looking  round  quietly,  Edison  saw  that  his  fellow-workers 
were  watching  over  his  shoulders,  with  no  little  excitement. 
That  betrayed  them.  But,  taking  no  apparent  notice,  he 
went  on,  calmly  sharpening  a  pencil  now  and  then,  to  their 
no  small  astonishment.  Then  the  New  York  telegraphist 
worked  very  carelessly  and  hurriedly,  letting  his  words  run 
together;  but  Edison,  undismayed,  went  on  until  he  had 
nearly  done  the  special  report.  Then  he  opened  the  key, 
and  said  calmly,  'Say,  young  man,  change  off,  and  send 
with  your  other  foot.'  Upon  that,  the  New  York  man 
gave  up  trying  to  overwhelm  him,  and  allowed  another 
clerk  to  take  his  place. 

The  great  ability  he  had  displayed  under  trying  circum- 
stances secured  the  respect  of  Edison's  new  associates, 
who  saw  in  him  one  of  the  most  expert  operators  in  the 
country. 

His  active  mind  was  then,  as  ever,  full  of  schemes  for 
achieving  wondrous  labour-saving  and  beneficial  inventions. 
Even  during  sleep,  his  brain  was  busy  devising  intricate 
machines,  which  he  was  not,  however,  able  to  remember 
when  he  awoke.  One  rather  amusing  instance  of  his 
applying  his  inventive  mind  to  the  exigencies  of  an  unusual 


BOSTON    EXPERIENCES.  37 

position  occurred  about  this  time.  It  happened  that  the 
telegraph  premises  were  overrun  with  a  numerous  army  of 
cockroaches,  against  whom  the  telegraph  clerks  had  long 
waged  a  vain  and  inglorious  warfare.  Overpowered  by- 
numbers,  hourly  increasing,  when  Edison  came  upon  the 
scene  the  men  were  decidedly  the  defeated  party.  No 
hiding-places  could  secure  for  them  immunity  from  the  pest, 
no  shelf  or  hook  was  safe  from  the  active  climbers :  over 
books,  appliances,  food,  and  clothes,  onward  came  the 
enemy.  Edison's  device  for  exterminating  them  was 
simple,  yet  effective.  Fastening  some  shining  strips  of 
tinfoil  on  the  wall,  he  smeared  these  with  such  food  as 
beetles  love,  and  connected  the  strips  with  a  powerful 
battery.  Then  the  poor  calcined  insects  poured  down 
from  what  was  for  them  a  crematory. 

Edison's  friend,  Mr  Milton  Adams,  happened  at  that 
time  to  be  himself  experiencing  a  reverse  of  fortune,  and 
the  youth  gladly  gave  him  board  and  lodging  for  a  while. 
His  sympathy  was  very  helpful,  and  together  the  friends 
frequented  second-hand  book  stores,  and  sought  for  scien- 
tific appliances  in  queer  old  shops,  or  investigated  the 
grand  resources  of  the  Boston  Public  Library,  which 
contained  a  collection  of  two  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
volumes.  Edison's  present  manager,  too,  gave  him  sym- 
pathy and  appreciation  such  as  he  had  not  often  met  with. 

Once,  when  he  was  very  busy  experimenting,  he  bought 
the  whole  of  Faraday's  works  on  electricity,  and,  having 
brought  them  home  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  read 
without  stopping  until  Mr  Adams  got  up,  and  it  was  time 
for  them  to  adjourn  for  breakfast  to  the  place,  a  mile 
distant,  where  they  took  their  meals.  Edison  was  full  of 
interest  and  excitement  about  what  he  had  been  reading. 

'Adams,'  he  said,  '  I  've  got  so  much  to  do,  and  life  is  so 


g8  BOSTON    EXPERIENCES. 

short,  that  I'm  going  to  hustle,'  and  so  he  set  off  running 
to  his  breakfast. 

Next,  we  have  a  glimpse  of  him,  at  six  o'clock  one 
morning,  carefully  letting  down  a  bottle  into  a  sewer  at 
the  corner  of  State  and  Washington  Streets.  The  bottle 
contained  nitro-glycerine  made  by  himself  and  a  mechanic 
with  whom  he  had  formed  an  acquaintance.  Having 
tested  a  small  quantity  of  this  explosive,  it  produced  such 
alarming  results  that  they  decided  the  sooner  it  was  out  of 
their  way  and  that  of  everyone  else,  the  better  it  would  be; 
hence  its  immersion  in  the  sewer. 

Not  long  after  coming  to  Boston,  Edison  commenced  to 
make  his  electrical  vote-recorder,  which  caused  his  first 
appearance  at  the  Patent  Office.  Having  been  struck  with 
the  great  waste  of  time  occasioned  by  the  old  way  of  taking 
votes  in  Congress  and  in  the  State  legislatures — half  an 
hour  or  more  being  required  to  count  the  'Ayes'  and 
'Noes' — he  made  a  machine,  something  like  the  hotel 
annunciator  that  was  invented  long  afterwards,  although 
more  complicated.  Edison  thus  described  this  ingenious 
invention  :  '  In  front  of  each  member  of  the  House  were 
two  buttons,  one  for  "  Aye  "  and  one  for  "  No."  By  the 
side  of  the  Speaker's  desk  was  erected  a  square  frame,  in 
the  upper  part  of  which  were  two  dials,  also  corresponding 
to  the  two  classes  of  vote.  Below  these  dials  were  spaces 
in  which  numbers  appeared.  When  the  vote  was  called 
for,  each  member  pressed  one  or  other  of  the  buttons  in 
front  of  him,  and  the  numbers  of  "  Ayes  "  and  "  Noes  "  that 
had  been  cast  at  once  appeared  automatically  on  the 
record  board.  All  the  Speaker  had  to  do  was  to  glance  at 
the  dial  and  announce  the  result.' 

This  device  would  save  several  hours  of  time  for  the 
public  every  day  in  the  session,  and  Edison  spared  neither 


BOSTON    EXPERIENCES.  39 

time  nor  money  to  secure  its  introduction.  Having  inter- 
ested a  moneyed  man  in  the  venture,  they  went  together  to 
Washington.  '  We  got  hold  of  the  right  man,'  said  Edison 
afterwards,  '  to  get  the  machine  adopted,  and  I  enthusiasti- 
cally set  forth  its  merits  to  him.  Just  imagine  my  feelings 
when,  in  a  horrified  tone,  he  exclaimed,  "  Young  man,  that 
won't  do  at  all.  That  is  just  what  we  do  not  want.  Your 
invention  would  destroy  the  only  hope  the  minority  have 
of  influencing  legislation.  It  would  deliver  them  over, 
bound  hand  and  foot,  to  the  majority.  The  present  system 
gives  them  a  weapon  which  is  invaluable,  and,  as  the 
ruling  majority  always  knows  that  it  may  some  day  become 
a  minority,  they  will  be  as  much  averse  to  any  change  as 
their  opponents."  I  saw  the  force  of  his  remarks,  and  was 
about  as  much  crushed  as  it  was  possible  to  be  at  my  age.' 

The  vote-recorder  got  no  further  than  the  Patent  Office, 
and,  ever  after,  Mr  Edison  made  a  point  of  investigating 
carefully  the  utility  of  any  invention  before  taking  the 
trouble  to  perfect  it. 

While  employed  by  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Com- 
pany at  Boston,  Edison  invented  a  dial  instrument  for 
people  to  use  who  wished  to  have  private  wires  in  their 
houses  or  offices,  and  did  not  want  to  trouble  to  learn 
telegraphy.  He  also  invented  a  private-wire  printer 
besides.  But  his  most  successful  work  was  the  first 
conception  and  partial  development  of  a  stock-quotation 
printer,  for  printing  the  price  of  stock  in  brokers'  offices. 

Edison  was  now  in  such  high  repute  at  Boston  that  he 
was  chosen  by  a  ladies'  academy  to  lecture  on  telegraphy. 
Being  exceedingly  busy  at  the  time,  he  forgot  about  the 
engagement,  and,  when  sought  hurriedly  by  his  friend,  Mr 
Adams,  was  found  at  the  top  of  a  house,  busily  erecting  a 
telegraph  wire.     When  reminded  of  the  lecture,  forgetting 


40  BOSTON    EXPERIENCES. 

again  that  it  was  an  academy  of  ladies  he  was  going  to 
address,  he  set  off  in  his  untidy  old  clothes,  just  as  he  was, 
to  give  the  lecture.  Hurrying  through  the  streets  and  into 
the  hall,  he  suddenly  found  himself  in  view  of  an  assembly 
of  stylishly  dressed  young  ladies.  This  was  overwhelming, 
indeed ;  but  Edison,  although  feeling  disconcerted,  bravely 
plunged  into  his  subject,  and  gave  his  fair  hearers  a  happy 
and  clear  explanation  of  telegraphy. 

The  girl  graduates  admired  the  frankness  and  presence 
of  mind  of  their  learned,  but  badly  dressed  lecturer,  and 
showed  their  approval  afterwards  by  their  sweet,  gracious 
behaviour  to  him  when  they  met. 


CHAPTER     VII. 

QUADRUPLEX   TELEGRAPHY. 


KNEW  Tom  [Edison]  when  he  was  a  barefoot 
boy  living  at  Fort  Gratiot,  Michigan,'  said  Mr  S.J. 
House  to  a  press  reporter;  fhe  was  always  hank- 
ering after  telegraphy,  and  once  rigged  up  a  line  from  his 
house  to  mine,  a  block  away.  I  could  not  receive  very  well, 
and  sometimes  I  would  come  out,  climb  on  the  fence,  and 
halloa  over  to  know  what  he  said.  That  always  angered  him ; 
he  seemed  to  take  it  as  a  reflection  upon  his  telegraph  line.' 

And  now  that  same  barefoot  boy,  grown  a  man  and 
already  remarkable  for  his  abilities  as  a  telegraphist  and 
inventive  talents,  set  to  work  zealously  to  improve  the 
system  of  electric  telegraphy. 

The  idea  of  the  electric  telegraph  occurred  to  Professor 
Morse  in  1832,  and  in  1837  he  made  his  first  somewhat 
rude  apparatus,  and  set  his  system  to  work.     Excellent 


QUADRUPLEX   TELEGRAPHY.  4 1 

as  it  was  fundamentally,  yet  it  had  imperfections  and 
limitations,  which  Edison  sought  to  remove  patiently  and 
with  great  success.  Less  expensive,  easier  to  work,  more 
rapid  became  the  system  as  altered  and  modified  by 
him,  until,  after  six  years,  he  accomplished  his  greatest 
effort  in  that  way — the  discovery  of  quadruplex  telegraphy. 
Let  me  explain. 

The  rapid  increase  in  the  business  of  telegraphy  called 
forth  the  exercise  of  the  ingenuity  of  telegraph  engineers 
to  increase  the  capacity  of  a  single  wire  for  the  transmission 
of  messages.  Duplex  telegraphy  is  one  way  in  which  this 
is  done.  By  this  system  messages  can  be  sent  on  one  line 
in  both  directions  at  the  same  time.  For  instance,  a  man 
at  Station  A  can  send  a  message  to  Station  B,  at  the  same 
time  that  an  operator  at  B  is  sending  a  totally  different 
message  to  A.  But  if  Station  A  or  Station  B  is  able  to 
send  two  messages  to  the  other  at  the  same  time  on  the 
same  wire,  we  have  diplex  telegraphy.  When  these  two 
systems  duplex  and  diplex  are  combined,  we  may  have 
four  messages  sent  simultaneously  on  a  single  wire,  and 
this  constitutes  quadruplex  telegraphy. 

The  invention  of  quadruplex  telegraphy  is  universally 
held  to  be  Edison's  crowning  achievement  in  telegraphy. 
In  America  alone  it  has  effected  the  enormous  saving  of 
15,000,000  dollars,  by  immensely  lessening  the  number  of 
wires  required  for  the  telegraph  work. 

Like  Edison's  other  inventions,  quadruplex  telegraphy 
was  the  result  of  long-continued  patient  study  and  ex- 
perimenting. It  had  been  suggested  by  Stark  and  Bosscha 
in  1855,  but  it  was  not  until  1874  that  Edison's  device 
solved  the  difficult  problem  of  how  it  was  to  be  done,  and 
the  system  now  in  use  is  the  practical  result  of  his  efforts, 
supplemented   by   those   of  others.     It   may  be  broadly 


42  QUADRUPLEX   TELEGRAPHY. 

described  as  the  duplex  system  provided  with  two  keys  in 
the  sending  circuit,  and  two  relays,  each  having  a  coil  in 
both  the  line  and  the  compensation  circuits.  One  key  is 
so  connected  that,  when  its  lever  is  depressed,  the  battery 
connections  are  reversed,  so  reversing  the  direction  of  the 
current,  while  the  other  key  is  so  constructed  that  the 
depression  of  the  lever  brings  into  circuit  three  times  as 
much  battery  power,  so  that  (whatever  the  direction  of  the 
current)  it  is  increased  in  strength  threefold.  The  relay 
at  one  end  responds  correctly  to  the  'marking'  and 
'  spacing '  currents,  whatever  their  strength  ;  while  the  relay 
on  the  other  end  is  actuated  only  when  the  greater  current 
is  received,  and  then  responds  whether  the  '  current '  is 
positive  or  negative. 

Edison  is  still  busy  with  experiments  which  he  hopes 
will  extend  the  quadruplex  system  into  a  sextuplex,  or 
even  octuplex  one.  If  he  succeeds,  six  or  eight  messages 
can  be  sent  simultaneously  over  the  same  wire. 

But  to  return  to  Edison  at  Boston.  The  same  year  1869, 
in  which  his  engagement  there  terminated,  he  had  so  far 
perfected  his  duplex  system  that  he  determined  to  make  a 
trial  of  it.  Mr  F.  L.  Pope,  Patent-adviser  of  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company,  very  kindly  assisted  him  to 
do  this.  The  results  were  imperfect,  but  Edison  per- 
ceived in  them  the  germs  of  great  things.  He  resolved  at 
once  that  he  would  go  and  carry  out  his  schemes  in  a 
wider  sphere  of  action. 

Accordingly  he  went  to  New  York,  after  having  taken  a 
trip  to  Rochester,  where  he  wished  to  try  his  new  invention 
by  the  wires  of  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  Railway  Company. 
The  trial,  however,  resulted  in  failure,  because  the  tele- 
graphist at  the  New  York  end  could  not  understand  how 
the  invention  should  be  worked. 


FROM  POVERTY  TO  RICHES.  43 


CHAPTER     VIII. 

FROM    POVERTY   TO    RICHES. 


HEN  Edison  came  to  New  York  he  was  painfully 
poor,  for  besides  his  empty  pockets,  he  was  loaded 
yyHIIJ  with  a  debt  amounting  to  two  or  three  hundred 
dollars. 

For  three  weeks  the  young  man  had  a  hard  time  of  it. 
Hunger,  rough  lodgings,  and  discouraging  interviews  with 
the  heads  of  telegraph  departments  were  most  depressing. 
But  there  is  an  old  saying  that  the  darkest  hour  is  just 
before  the  dawn,  and  when  things  are  at  their  lowest  ebb 
they  often  begin  to  rise;  and  so  it  was  with  Edison. 
Plunged  into  poverty  and  the  contempt  of  man  in  a 
strange  place,  after  all  his  brilliant  achievements  and  his 
long  toil  of  night  and  day,  his  soul  was  sinking  within  him, 
and  his  physical  endurance  was  beginning  to  wane,  when 
one  day  he  found  himself  on  the  steps  of  the  Laws  Gold 
Reporting  Company's  Office,  Wall  Street.  A  crowd  was 
surging  about  the  place  and  elbowing  its  way  inside  the 
door,  desperation  in  some  countenances,  trouble  in  all. 
Amidst  the  confusion,  Edison  passed  into  the  office  un- 
noticed, and  standing  by,  observed  with  keen  eyes  exactly 
what  was  wrong,  and  also  how  to  remedy  it. 

The  office  was  the  centre  of  no  fewer  than  six  hundred 
brokers'  offices,  with  each  of  which  it  was  connected  by  a 
system  of  indicators.  It  was  in  fact,  in  a  way,  the  great 
heart  of  wide-spread  commercial  activity.  And  just  then 
Wall  Street  was  in  a  state  of  immense  excitement  about  a 


44  FROM  POVERTY  TO  RICHES. 

singular  financial  crisis.  A  panic  threatened  in  the  gold 
market ;  whole  families  were  on  the  verge  of  ruin,  fortunes 
trembled  in  the  balance.  Inflamed,  unmanned  by  the 
lust  of  gold,  men  crowded  round  the  centre  whence 
news  could  be  obtained,  with  cruel  shouts  of  triumph  or 
senile  bursts  of  tears;  and  just  at  the  time  of  all  that 
wretched  excitement,  when  the  eyes  of  thousands  were 
turned  with  frantic  eagerness  to  see  what  statistics 
would  be  furnished  by  the  hundreds  of  indicators,  there  in 
the  Laws  Gold  Reporting  Company's  chief  office,  the 
stock-quotation  printer,  working  by  means  of  electricity, 
had  suddenly  collapsed,  whilst  with  it  was  lost  every 
subordinate  source  of  information.  Mr  Laws  was  a  very 
nervous  man;  his  superintendent,  Mr  Frank  Pope,  re- 
sembled him  in  that  respect;  they  were  therefore  almost 
driven  off  their  mental  balance  by  this  dire  misfortune.  Six 
hundred  brokers'  boys,  weighted  with  indignant  messages 
from  their  chiefs,  and  a  crowd  of  angry,  excited  people 
surging  to  and  fro  without  and  even  within  their  office, 
drove  them  almost  to  desperation.     What  could  they  do  ? 

■  I  think,  Mr  Laws,'  remarked  Edison  quietly,  after  having 
calmly  examined  the  broken-down  printer,  '  I  can  show 
you  where  the  trouble  lies.  There  is  a  contact  spring 
which  has  broken  and  fallen  between  two  cog-wheels, 
which  prevents  the  gear  from  moving.' 

It  was  indeed  so.  With  gratitude  Mr  Laws  looked  at 
the  shabbily  dressed  stranger  whose  cleverness  had  saved 
him  from  his  most  disastrous  position.  The  obstruction 
was  quickly  removed  from  the  quotation  printer,  and  that 
important  centre  was  again  in  touch  with  all  its  dependent 
organs. 

Soon  Edison  found  himself  a  hero  gazed  upon  by 
hundreds  of  admiring  eyes.     And  the  end  of  it  was  that, 


FROM  POVERTY  TO  RICHES.  45 

the  very  next  day,  Mr  Laws  gladly  engaged  him  to  take 
charge  in  future  of  all  the  machinery,  and  see  that  it 
ran  successfully.  His  salary  was  fixed  at  three  hundred 
dollars  a  month,  which  was  very  nearly  three  times  as 
much  as  he  had  ever  received  before.  Thus  lifted  out  of 
poverty,  and  encouraged  by  the  confidence  of  his  new 
employer,  Edison  found  himself  in  much  more  favourable 
circumstances  for  inventing.  The  stock-quotation  indicator 
being  in  his  charge,  was  much  improved  by  him,  but  by- 
and-by  he  devised  another,  which  was  so  good  that  Mr 
Laws  exerted  himself,  and  did  not  spare  his  money  in 
introducing  it. 

The  Edison  stock  printer,  chiefly  intended  for  the  gold 
market,  was  made  to  print  letters,  figures,  and  characters 
from  a  double  type  wheel.  This  invention  was  a  grand 
success.  But  the  immediate  result  for  young  Edison  was 
that  he  lost  his  situation,  for  a  Consolidated  Company  was 
formed.  The  Consolidated  Company,  however,  made 
overtures  to  him  which  he  refused,  entering  instead  into  a 
partnership  with  a  firm  of  electricians.  Then  he  invented 
another  and  better  gold-reporting  printer,  which  was 
eventually  bought  by  the  Consolidated  Company. 

After  working  some  time  for  the  electricians,  and 
receiving  from  them  very  much  less  remuneration  than  Mr 
Laws  had  given  him,  Edison  left  the  firm  and  became 
connected  with  General  Marshall  LefFerts,  the  President  of 
the  Gold  and  Stock  Telegraph  Company.  And  now, 
under  more  advantageous  circumstances,  he  invented 
some  stock  printers  and  private  family  telegraph  appliances, 
with  which  the  company  was  so  pleased  that  it  sent  a 
committee  to  wait  upon  him,  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
these  inventions  for  itself. 

Edison  had  made  up  his  mind  that  the  sum  that  the 


46  FROM    POVERTY   TO    RICHES. 

company  ought  to  pay  him  should  be  about  five  thousand 
dollars.  But,  wanting  money  badly  as  he  did  for  further 
experiments,  he  was  privately  resolved  to  accept  anything. 

'  How  much  do  you  want  for  your  devices  ? '  asked  one 
of  the  members  of  the  committee. 

'  Make  me  an  offer,'  replied  Edison  cautiously. 

1  Well/  said  the  other, '  how  would  forty  thousand  dollars 
strike  you  ? ' 

Edison  was  so  'struck'  that  in  his  own  words,  he  ' could 
have  been  knocked  down  with  the  traditional  feather/  so 
astonished  was  he  at  the  sum. 

Of  course  he  at  once  accepted  it,  but  later  began  to  fear 
that  the  offer  was  not  genuine,  and  that  he  had  been  made 
the  victim  of  a  Wall  Street  trick.  Two  days  afterwards, 
however,  a  large  formidable-looking  contract  was  brought 
him  to  sign,  and  after  he  had  done  so,  a  cheque  on  the 
William  and  Wall  Street  Bank  was  handed  to  him. 

Strangely  enough,  Edison  had  never  been  in  a  bank 
before,  so,  when  he  went  to  get  his  cheque  cashed,  he  was 
not  at  all  certain  what  to  do.  He  stood  still,  therefore,  a 
little  while,  to  see  as  he  says,  'the  mode  of  procedure/  and 
then  proceeded  to  take  his  place  in  turn  with  others,  at 
the  paying  clerk's  window. 

When  his  turn  came  and  he  presented  his  cheque,  the 
cashier  said  something  to  him  which  he  did  not  hear,  and 
then  proceeded  to  shout  to  him  ;  but  owing  to  his  deafness, 
Edison  was  unable  to  understand  what  he  wanted.  Again 
the  clerk  shouted,  but  in  vain. 

Edison  turned  away,  and  sitting  down  dismally  on  the 
steps  of  the  bank,  concluded  that  he  would  never  get  that 
forty  thousand  dollars.  Indeed  he  became  so  hopeless 
that,  he  said  afterwards,  any  one  might  have  bought  that 
cheque  of  him  for  fifty  dollars. 


FROM  POVERTY  TO  RICHES. 


47 


At  last,  however,  he  went  back  to  the  company's  office, 
and  told  one  of  the  clerks  how  he  had  failed  to  get  the 
cheque  cashed.  Then  it  was  explained  to  him  that  the 
cashier  only  wanted  to  know  who  he  was,  before  paying 
over  to  him  such  a  large  sum.  Returning  to  the  bank 
with  Edison,  the  company's  clerk  introduced  him  there, 
and  the  money  was  at  once  paid  over. 


CHAPTER     IX. 

NEWARK    LABORATORY   AND    FACTORY. 

N  less  than  six  weeks  after  Edison  received  that 
memorable  cheque  for  forty  thousand  dollars 
(about  ;£8o2o),  he  spent  most  of  it  in  fitting  up 
a  workshop  of  his  own  with  everything  necessary  for  his 
inventing  and  manufacturing  work. 

Several  of  these  shops  were  occupied  in  succession  by 
Edison,  and  in  them  much  good  work  was  done,  and  a 
large  number  of  inventions  turned  out,  most  of  which 
were  in  connection  with  printing  telegraphs.  Then  he 
became  associated  with  the  Automatic  Telegraph  Com- 
pany. This  company  had  gained  possession  of  the  inven- 
tions of  a  Mr  Little;  which,  however,  proved  more  or 
less  a  failure,  as  they  did  not  fulfil  their  promise.  The 
company  had  made  a  line  between  New  York  and 
Washington,  but  they  could  not  do  business  upon  it, 
because  Mr  Little's  apparatus  failed  them.  At  that  point 
Edison  was  called  in,  and  he  speedily  solved  the  problem 
so  completely  that  the  line  was  opened  for  business,  much 
to  the  satisfaction  of  his  employers. 

Edison's    services    were    meanwhile    retained    by    the 


48  NEWARK    LABORATORY    AND    FACTORY. 

Western  Union  Railway  Company,  the  Gold  Stock 
Company,  and  other  influential  firms,  and  in  1873  he 
entered  into  an  agreement  to  give  the  former  two  com- 
panies the  benefit  of  all  his  ideas  relating  to  telegraphy. 
For  this  a  very  handsome  salary  was  paid  him,  and  high 
rates  of  payment  were  agreed  to  in  regard  to  future 
inventions. 

It  was  now  necessary  that  Edison  should  have  many 
assistants  and  a  large  sphere  of  operations.  We  therefore 
find  him,  in  the  year  1873,  when  he  was  twenty-six  years 
old,  located  in  a  large  laboratory  and  factory  in  Ward 
Street,  Newark,  with  a  partner,  one  Mr  William  Unger, 
and  a  staff  of  three  hundred  subordinates. 

Very  irregular  and  unbusinesslike  were  the  arrangements 
in  this  large  establishment.  Edison  disliked  what  he 
called  the  '  humbuggery  of  book-keeping,'  and  paid  his  men 
and  kept  his  accounts  in  a  fashion  peculiar  to  him- 
self. Perhaps  his  prejudice  against  book-keeping  was 
increased  by  the  incompetence  of  the  man  whom  he  at 
first  employed  as  book-keeper.  This  fellow,  upon  winding 
up  the  books  at  the  end  of  the  first  twelve  months, 
made  it  out  there  was  a  surplus  of  seven  thousand  five 
hundred  dollars.  Edison  was  delighted  when  he  heard 
this,  and,  with  his  usual  generosity,  determined  that  his 
men  should  share  the  general  prosperity;  therefore  he 
gave  orders  for  festivities  which  were  to  be  carried  out  at 
his  expense.  But,  before  this  was  done,  he  began  to 
reflect  that  it  was  really  incredible  that  there  could  be 
such  a  large  surplus  of  money  after  all  his  heavy  expendi- 
ture in  the  pursuit  of  science.  He  therefore  took  the 
books  himself,  and  after  wrestling  with  them  the  whole  of 
one  night,  discovered,  to  his  dismay,  that,  instead  of  a 
surplus,  the  accounts  showed  a  grave  deficit  of  some  fifteen 


NEWARK    LABORATORY   AND    FACTORY.  49 

thousand  dollars  (more  than  ^3000).  The  orders  he  had 
given  were  instantly  countermanded,  and  henceforward  he 
would  have  no  book-keeper. 

The  men's  wages  and  the  bills  generally  were  now  paid 
by  Edison  in  a  somewhat  erratic  fashion.  The  hours  of 
work  also  were  as  irregular  as  the  pay-times,  and  all  might 
have  been  confusion  and  insubordination  if  Edison  had 
not  been  what  he  was.  But  he  won  the  love  of  his  men 
and  their  zealous  sympathy  by  his  bright  winning 
enthusiasm  and  his  sunny  disposition.  The  men  could 
discern  their  master's  superior  abilities  in  the  humblest 
detail;  his  ready  help  was  ever  given  to  the  meanest 
mechanic  in  his  employ. 

•  We  had  no  fixed  hours,'  he  said,  speaking  of  their  work 
together,  'but  the  men,  so  far  from  objecting  to  the 
irregularity,  often  begged  to  be  allowed  to  return  and 
complete  certain  experiments  upon  which  they  knew  my 
heart  was  set' 

Sometimes,  when  an  experiment  of  unusual  importance 
was  to  be  made,  and  it  was  necessary  that  the  work  should 
be  done  expeditiously,  Edison  would  pass  through  the 
laboratory,  giving  gifts  liberally,  and,  by  joking  remarks 
about  their  dullness,  inciting  the  men  to  greater  exertions. 
'  A  good  story  is  told  us  by  Mr  and  Mrs  Dickson  of 
another  occasion  when  the  master-will  commanded  the 
situation  by  sheer  force.  Edison  had  received  an  order 
to  supply  thirty  thousand  dollars  worth  of  his  gold  and 
stock-quotation  printer,  and  for  some  reason  or  other  the 
new  instruments  would  not  work.  Edison  thereupon  went 
up  to  the  top  floor  of  his  factory,  with  several  of  his 
scientific  assistants,  and,  turning,  locked  himself  and  them 
in.  '  Now,  you  fellows,'  he  cried,  '  I  've  locked  the  door, 
and  you'll  have  to  stay  here  until  this  job  is  completed.' 

D 


50  NEWARK    LABORATORY    AND    FACTORY. 

And  they  remained  there  for  sixty  hours  of  hard  work  of 
mind  and  body,  with  no  sleep  and  with  scarcely  any  food. 
But  at  the  end  of  that  time  the  difficulty  was  conquered ; 
what  was  wrong  in  the  new  instruments  was  discovered 
and  rectified.  After  this  great  and  long-continued  effort, 
Edison  slept  for  thirty-six  hours,  and  then  awoke  feeling 
all  right  again  and  ready  for  fresh  labours. 

Now  and  again,  in  his  moments  of  success,  Edison's 
happy  and  still  boyish  disposition  showed  itself  in  scenes 
like  the  following.  One  day,  on  his  return  from  New 
York,  where  he  had  just  sold  a  favourite  invention,  he 
entered  his  workshop  with  a  'whoop.'  Tossing  his  silk 
hat  into  an  oil  pan,  he  was  just  about  to  send  his  coat 
after  it,  when  some  one  laughingly  stopped  him  and  took 
possession  of  the  coat. 

Once,  when  he  had  a  number  of  schemes  in  his  brain 
— amongst  others  the  important  quadruplex  telegraph — 
which  required  great  concentration  of  thought,  Edison  was 
served  with  a  notice  that  unless  he  paid  his  taxes  the  next 
day — the  last  of  the  days  of  grace  allowed — he  would  have 
to  pay  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent,  extra. 

Accordingly  he  went  to  the  City  Hall,  and  took  his 
place  in  the  line  of  those  who  were  going  to  pay  their 
taxes.  There  were  about  a  hundred  people  before  him, 
and  so  Edison  filled  up  the  tedious  interval  by  mentally 
working  out  his  quadruplex  telegraphy,  and  became  so 
absorbed  that  he  completely  forgot  what  had  brought  him 
to  the  tax  office. 

'  Now  then,  young  man,  look  sharp.  What  is  your 
name?'  asked  the  official  behind  the  counter  when,  he 
mechanically  stood  before  him. 

Edison  looked  at  the  man  in  no  little  perplexity,  and 
answered,  '  I — I  don't  know.' 


NEWARK    LABORATORY   AND    FACTORY.  51 

He  was  waived  aside  impatiently,  others  poured  into  his 
place,  the  clock  struck  the  hour,  the  time  of  grace  was 
over,  and  he  had  incurred  the  extra  charge  of  twelve  and  a 
half  per  cent. 


CHAPTER     X. 

MARRIAGE. 

T  was  about  this  time  that  a  touch  of  romance 
came  into  Edison's  life,  as  it  comes  into  that 
of  most  men  at  least  once  in  a  lifetime. 
Amongst  those  who  were  members  of  the  inventor's 
working  force  was  one  Mary  E.  Stillwell,  whom  the 
master  learned  to  love.  Her  influence  was  gentle  and 
elevating,  as  his  mother's  had  been  during  her  lifetime, 
and  Edison's  courtship  of  her — brief,  and  simple  as  was 
the  nature  of  the  man — ended  in  their  happy  marriage  in 
the  year  1873. 

Mrs  Edison  retained  her  sympathy  with  the  work-people 
amongst  whom  she  had  once  laboured,  and  she  is  said  to 
have  been  greatly  beloved  and  highly  esteemed  by  them. 
Well  was  it  for  Edison  that  he  had  now  some  one  to  look 
after  his  home  comforts.  Neglectful  as  he  had  ever  been 
of  necessary  food  and  sleep  when  engaged  on  any  special 
work,  it  was  only  his  splendid  physique — a  physique  which 
had  never  been  injured  by  any  form  of  dissipation — that 
enabled  him  to  bear  such  deprivations.  But  one  cannot 
with  impunity  for  ever  violate  the  laws  of  nature.  With 
increased  years,  and  the  increased  tension  of  an  arduous 
life,  greater  care  was  necessary.  Mrs  Edison  had  no  easy 
task  before  her.     When  he  did  condescend  to  pay  atten- 


52  MARRIAGE. 

tion  to  such  subjects,  Edison's  views  of  domestic  comfort 
were,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  uncommon. 

'I  wish  I  may  never  eat  the  same  thing  twice  in  a 
month,'  he  said  to  his  wife  when  she  began  housekeeping. 

'Variety,'  he  repeated,  on  another  occasion,  'is  the 
secret  of  wise  eating.  The  nations  that  eat  the  most 
kinds  of  food  are  the  greatest' 

And  he  argued  that  there  was  a  striking  resemblance 
between  material  and  spiritual  laws,  and  held  that  in 
proportion  to  the  elasticity  of  the  diet  provided  for  the 
body  would  be  the  capacity  and  the  power  of  the  mind, 
basing  these  assertions  on  the  dietary  and  intellectual 
ability  of  the  different  nations.  Rice-eating  nations,  he 
said,  never  got  on  well,  or  thought  or  did  anything  but  rice, 
rice,  rice  for  ever.  The  Irish,  too,  who  ate  potatoes  and 
black  bread,  though  naturally  bright,  were  enervated  by  the 
uniformity  of  their  food.  On  the  other  hand,  the  French, 
the  most  thrifty,  well-mannered,  educated,  and  accom- 
plished people,  had  an  immense  variety  of  food.  And 
when  the  Roman  Empire  was  at  the  zenith  of  its  grandeur, 
the  food  of  its  great  men  was  delicate  and  richly  varied. 
And  so  on,  adding,  'A  nation  begins  to  decay,  philo- 
sophically and  morally,  as  soon  as  cooking  is  degraded 
from  an  art  to  an  occupation.' 

Edison's  biographers  remark  that  these  youthful  con- 
victions of  the  great  inventor  have  yielded  in  great  measure 
to  the  larger  views  of  his  more  mature  manhood ;  and  that 
is  well,  for  history  scarcely  bears  out  his  early  assertions. 
With  the  luxurious  epicureanism  of  the  great  Oriental  and 
Latin  nations  came  the  sapping  of  their  intellectual  life, 
the  degrading  of  their  moral  sense,  the  loss  of  political 
unity. 

The  year  following  his  marriage  was  for  Edison  a  year 


MARRIAGE.  53 

of  great  creative  activity.  It  was  then  that  the  famous 
quadruplex  telegraphy,  of  which  mention  has  been  made, 
was  given  to  the  world. 

At  first  this  great  invention  met  with  much  opposition 
from  those  who  wanted  to  make  it  out  that  their  own 
methods  were  as  good  or  better,  but  its  immense  superior- 
ity at  length  was  universally  recognised,  and  it  spread 
rapidly  over  the  world. 

Four  years  afterwards,  the  president  of  the  Western 
Union  stated  that  the  invention  was  one  of  the  most 
important  in  telegraphy,  and  had  saved  the  company  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars  annually. 

Edison  received  only  a  comparatively  small  sum  for 
this  world-renowned  invention,  which  he  spent  entirely  in 
making  and  bringing  out  his  octuplex,  an  instrument  which 
would  send  eight  messages  at  the  same  time  over  the  same 
wire. 

Three  children,  Marian  and  Thomas  Alva  (nicknamed 
Dot  and  Dash),  and  William  Leslie,  were  born  to  Edison 
and  his  wife.  But  their  union  was  comparatively  a  short 
one;  for,  eight  years  after  their  marriage,  in  the  year  1881, 
Edison  had  the  great  sorrow  of  losing  by  death  his  intel- 
ligent, sympathising,  and  beloved  wife. 


CHAPTER     XL 

DIVERS    INVENTIONS. 

YOUNG  man  who  has  kept  the  path  to  the 
Patent  Office  hot  with  his  footsteps.'     Thus  the 
United   States   Patent  Commissioner  described 
Edison  at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  twenty-four  years. 


54  DIVERS    INVENTIONS. 

And  it  was  indeed  astonishing  to  the  beholders  to  see  the 
number  and  the  excellence  of  his  inventions. 

Large  and  complete  as  the  laboratory  and  factory  at 
Newark  seemed  to  him,  after  his  former  quarters,  so  great 
were  the  works  done  in  it — at  one  time  he  had  forty-five 
separate  inventions  in  different  stages  of  completion — 
that  he  found  he  required  many  things  impossible  to 
get  on  the  Newark  premises.  His  growing  fame,  too, 
caused  the  place  to  be  thronged  with  visitors,  who  came 
there  sometimes  from  a  love  of  science,  but  oftener  from 
vulgar  curiosity.  To  escape  from  these,  and  to  obtain 
greater  facilities  for  his  work,  Edison  took  his  family  and 
the  whole  establishment  to  Menlo  Park,  a  quiet  spot  about 
twenty-four  miles  from  New  York. 

At  this  place  he  built  a  large  and  splendidly  fitted  up 
laboratory,  with  every  accessory  that  could  assist  him  and 
his  followers  in  their  work.  He  declared  that  when  the 
public  tracked  him  out  there,  he  would  simply  have  to  take 
to  the  woods. 

It  is  interesting  to  read  the  description  of  the  large  and 
costly  appurtenances  of  this  mighty  workshop,  from  its^ 
splendid  scientific  library  of  the  newest  and  most  reliable 
works  of  reference,  to  the  pipe-organ  of  good  tone  and 
dimensions  and  the  musical  box,  which  were  so  frequently 
useful  when  the  inventor  thought  that  the  soothing  influence 
of  music  would  assist  him  or  his  employees  in  their  arduous 
duties. 

From  the  wonderfulness  and  variety  of  the  feats  of 
scientific  skill  which  were  accomplished  in  this  quiet 
retreat,  its  owner  has  been  designated  'The  Wizard  of 
Menlo  Park? 

Let  us  glance  at  some  of  these  inventions.  There  was, 
first,  the  carbon  telephone  transmitter.     The  telephone,  as 


DIVERS    INVENTIONS.  55 

first  used,  bore  Bell's  name,  having  been  invented  by 
Professor  Alexander  Bell.  It  was  in  need  of  one  thing  to 
make  it  thoroughly  practicable,  and  that  was  the  transmitter, 
which  Edison  forthwith  invented  and  patented.  In  this 
transmitter  carbon  was  employed  to  translate  sound  into 
electric  waves.  Let  me  explain.  To  transmit  speech 
by  means  of  electricity,  the  current  must  not  be  suddenly 
interrupted,  but  made  to  vary  in  strength  in  exact  con- 
formity with  the  rapidly  changing  motion  of  the  sound- 
bearing  waves.  The  strength  of  a  current  may  be  varied 
in  two  ways — the  current-producing  power  may  be  altered, 
or  the  resistance  that  the  current  has  to  encounter  may  be 
changed.  Thus,  as  Professor  Barrett  points  out,  in  scientific 
phraseology,  the  strength  of  the  current  is  equal  to  the 
electro-motive  force  divided  by  the  resistance  in  the  path 
of  the  current. 

In  the  telephone  invented  by  Professor  Bell,  the  voice 
produces  variations  in  the  numerator  of  this  fraction.  It 
has  both  to  make  the  current  as  well  as  to  make  it  vary 
in  accordance  with  itself.  This  works  well  enough  on 
short  lines,  but  will  not  do  for  long  ones,  because  the 
strength  of  its  current  depends  entirely  upon  the  voice 
itself. 

In  Edison's  telephone  the  voice  has  merely  to  vary  the 
resistance  in  the  path  of  the  current  (the  denominator  of 
the  fraction),  and  not  to  produce  the  current  itself;  which 
was  produced  by  coarser  means.  The  best  form  of  a 
telephone  on  this  principle  was  invented  by  an  American 
named  Elisha  Gray.  His  invention,  however,  .was  not 
practicable;  but  Edison  succeeded  where  he  failed. 

Having  obtained  a  current  from  an  ordinary  -voltaic 
battery,  Edison's  object  was  to_  make,  the  voice  vary  the 
resistance  in  its  path.     For  this-  purpose  he.,  devised  all 


56  DIVERS    INVENTIONS. 

sorts  of  ingenious  contrivances  for  transmitting  speech  on 
this  principle.  But  one  by  one  they  were  proved  faulty  and 
abandoned  until,  in  1877,  he  tried  a  thin  film  of  plum- 
bago on  ground  glass  included  in  the  circuit,  a  spring  being 
attached  to  the  vibrating  diaphragm,  the  end  of  which 
rested  on  the  film,  so  that,  as  the  diaphragm  moved,  more 
or  less  of  the  film  was  included  in  the  circuit.  By  degrees 
this  led  to  the  use  of  small  cylinders  of  plumbago  against 
which  the  diaphragm  passed.  The  articulation  was  poor, 
but  conversation  could  be  understood.  At  last,  however, 
Edison  made  a  transmitter  which  had  a  button  or  wafer  of 
some  semi-conducting  substance  between  two  discs  of 
platinum.  The  slight  pressure  of  a  piece  of  rubber  tubing 
secured  to  the  diaphragm,  and  resting  against  the  outside 
disc,  maintained  electrical  connection  between  the  button 
and  discs.  Thus  the  vibrations  of  the  diaphragm  were 
able  to  produce  the  requisite  pressure  on  the  platinum  disc, 
and  in  that  way  vary  the  resistance  of  the  button  included 
in  the  primary  circuit  of  an  induction  coil.  A  button  of 
solid  plumbago,  such  as  is  employed  by  electrotypers,  was 
first  used  with  what  were  considered  excellent  results, 
for  everything  transmitted  came  out  moderately  distinct, 
but  the  sound  altogether  was  not  greater  than  that  of  the 
magneto-telephone. 

Again  and  again  Edison  tried  other  semi-conductors, 
until  he  hit  upon  some  lampblack  which  had  been  taken 
from  the  chimney  of  a  smoking  petroleum  lamp.  It  was 
intensely  black.  Edison  made  a  small  disc  the  size  of  six- 
pence of  this  black  substance,  and  placed  it  in  the  tele- 
phone. The  result  was  excellent,  the  articulation  being 
distinct,  and  the  sound  much  greater  than  with  telephones 
worked  on  the  magneto  principle.  When,  however,  with 
the  line  being  very  long,   there  was  a  great  permanent 


DIVERS    INVENTIONS.  57 

resistance  in  the  circuit,  the  alterations  of  resistance  pro- 
duced by  the  voice  in  the  carbon  wafer,  and  thus  in  the 
current  strength,  were  almost  imperceptible.  Edison  met 
this  difficulty,  and  conquered  it  to  a  great  extent  by  employ- 
ing an  induction  coil  in  the  current.  A  coil  consisted  of 
two  parts — a  short  thick  coil  of  wire  called  the  preliminary 
coil,  surrounded  by  a  long  thin  wire,  the  secondary  coil. 
A  current  of  electricity  flowing  through  the  former  induced 
currents  in  the  latter,  and  the  least  difference  in  the  strength 
of  the  primary  current  caused  a  considerable  fluctuation  in 
the  secondary  coil.  Now  Edison's  carbon  transmitter  was 
included  in  the  primary  circuit,  no  direct  battery  current 
being  sent  along  the  line,  but  only  induced  currents  from 
the  secondary  coil.  Edison  next  found  that  the  thin  vibrat- 
ing diaphragm  was  not  necessary,  and  so  he  attached  the 
carbon  wafer  rigidly  to  a  comparatively  thick  plate  of  iron 
against  which  the  voice  was  directed.  The  result  was 
wonderful;  a  whisper  three  feet  from  the  telephone  was 
clearly  heard  and  understood  at  the  end  of  the  line. 

Having  sold  the  right  to  use  this  transmitter  to  the 
Western  Union,  whilst  Bell's  instrument  was  in  the  hands 
of  Boston  capitalists,  a  fierce  competition  ensued. 

'  In  England,'  said  Edison,  when  describing  the  matter, 
'we  had  fun.  You  see  neither  the  Bell  people  nor  we 
could  work  satisfactorily  without  injuring  the  other.  They 
infringed  on  my  transmitter,  and  we  infringed  on  their 
receiver ;  and  there  we  were,  cutting  each  other's  throats. 
Well,  of  course,  this  could  not  go  on  for  ever,  and  consoli- 
dation had  to  come,  although  a  second  fight  over  the 
terms  of  this  consolidation  was  bound  to  come.  In  a 
measure  they  had  the  whip  hand  of  us;  so  I  was  not 
surprised  to  receive  one  day  from  our  representative  in 
England  a  telegram,  the  gist  of  which  was  that  the  Bell 


58  DIVERS    INVENTIONS. 

people  wanted  more  than  their  full  share  of  the  receipts  in 
case  of  consolidation,  and  that  our  agent  was  at  his  wits' 
end  what  to  do.  I  cabled  back  at  once,  somewhat  to  this 
effect :  "  Do  not  accept  terms  of  consolidation.  I  will 
invent  new  receiver  and  send  it  over."  Then  I  set  to 
work.  I  had  found  out  some  time  before  that  electricity 
altered,  in  some  mysterious  way,  the  co-efficients  of  friction 
in  moving  bodies,  and  I  determined  to  turn  this  fact  to 
account.  In  three  weeks  I  had  a  receiver  finished  which 
worked  even  better  than  the  Bell,  and  in  less  than  no  time 
afterwards  we  had  got  six  hundred  of  them  made.  With 
those  we  started  off  a  body  of  men  on  a  quick  steamer ; 
and  an  instructor  went  along,  who,  during  the  voyage, 
taught  the  men  how  to  manipulate  the  new  receivers,  and 
how  to  make  them  if  more  should  be  required.  The  new 
receivers,  immediately  on  their  arrival  in  England,  were 
attached  to  the  instruments  in  all  our  stations ;  and  this 
brought  our  opponents  round.  We  consolidated  on  equal 
terms  shortly  afterwards.' 

Edison  called  this  new  receiver  the  motograph.  It  is 
very  ingenious.  A  carbon  point  presses  upon  a  revolving 
cylinder.  A  current  of  electricity  passing  through  this 
makes  the  carbon  point  press  more  or  less  heavily  upon 
the  cylinder  according  as  the  current  is  strong  or  weak  or 
intermittent.  The  vibrations  of  the  diaphragm  give  this 
varying  action  to  the  current,  and,  by  the  principle  of 
'give  and  take,'  another  diaphragm  at  any  distance 
vibrates  sympathetically  with  that  affected  by  the  sound 
waves. 

Then  Edison  invented  the  micro-tasimeter,  an  exceed- 
ingly delicate  instrument  for  measuring  inappreciable 
degrees  of  heat.  The  name  of  it  is  taken  from  three  Greek 
words,  and  means  '  minute-pressure-measurer.'    Edison  him- 


DIVERS    INVENTIONS.  59 

self  explains  its  principles  thus  :  '  It  consists  of  a  carbon 
button  placed  between  two  metallic  plates.  A  current  of 
electricity  is  passed  through  one  plate.  A  piece  of  hard 
rubber,  or  of  gelatine,  is  so  supported  as  to  press  against 
these  plates.  The  whole  is  then  placed  in  connection 
with  a  galvanometer  and  an  electric  battery.  Heat  causes 
the  strip  of  rubber  to  expand  and  press  the  plates  closer 
together  on  the  carbon,  allows  more  current  to  pass 
through,  and  deflects  the  needle  of  the  galvanometer. 
Cold  decreases  the  pressure.  Moisture  near  the  strip 
of  gelatine  can  be  measured  in  the  same  way  by  increasing 
or  decreasing  the  pressure,  and  accordingly  deflecting 
the  needle.  By  means  of  this  apparatus,  or  one  combined 
with  sensitive  electrical  galvanometers,  it  is  possible  to 
measure  the  millionth  part  of  a  degree  Fahrenheit.' 

In  a  solar  eclipse  which  occurred  soon  after  he  had 
invented  it,  Edison  discovered  with  the  instrument  traces 
of  heat  in  the  outer  gaseous  envelope  of  the  sun,  known 
as  the  corona.  Not  only  was  the  capacity  of  the  tasimeter 
found  sufficient  for  the  registration  of  the  desired  pheno- 
menon, but  it  was  found  that  the  heat  from  the  sun's 
corona  went  ten  times  beyond  the  index  capacity  of  the 
instrument. 

Edison's  tasimeter  was  now  brought  into  public  notice, 
and  the  Scientific  American  for  October  1878  said  : 

'  Seeing  that  the  tasimeter  is  affected  by  a  wider  range  of 
etheric  undulations  than  the  eye  can  take  cognisance  of, 
and  is  withal  far  more  acutely  sensitive ;  the  probabilities 
are  that  it"  will  open  up  hitherto  inaccessible  regions  of 
space,  and  possibly  extend  the  range  of  aerial  knowledge 
as  far  beyond  the  limit  obtained  by  the  telescope  as  that 
is  beyond  the  reach  of  unaided  vision.  Possibly,  too,  it 
may  bring  within  human  ken  a  vast  multitude  of  nearer 


60  DIVERS    INVENTIONS. 

bodies — burnt-out  suns,  or  feebly  reflecting  planets,  now 
unknown  because  not  luminous.' 

Exceedingly  sensitive  is  the  tasimeter.  A  lighted  cigar 
several  feet  away  will  throw  the  light  off  the  scale,  as  may 
also  the  heat  from  a  human  body  standing  eight  feet  off 
and  in  a  line  with  the  cone ;  and  the  radiance  from  a  gas 
jet  one  hundred  feet  away  causes  a  noticeable  deviation. 

Moisture  also  causes  a  very  perceptible  alteration  in  the 
gelatine.  One  day,  when  he  was  experimenting,  the  great 
inventor  put  a  strip  of  gelatine  between  the  upright  pieces 
of  carbon,  and  then  held  a  strip  of  damp  paper  three 
inches  away  from  the  gelatine.  Instantly  the  latter 
expanded,  causing  the  needle  to  shift  eight  degrees.  A 
drop  of  water  upon  the  tip  of  the  finger  five  inches  away 
deflected  the  needle  eleven  degrees. 

This  instrument  has  been  found  very  useful  for  the 
detection  of  icebergs  at  sea.  For  that  purpose  it  is  put 
into  a  case  which  is  connected  with  the  ship's  keel,  and 
attached  by  wires  which  run  from  a  kind  of  Daniell  battery 
to  a  common  galvanometer  in  the  captain's  cabin.  As 
cold  causes  the  compressing  rod  to  contract  and  warmth 
makes  it  expand,  the  deflections  caused  in  that  manner  are 
brought  at  once  before  the  captain's  sight,  so  quickly  that 
he  has  sufficient  time  to  guard  against  the  danger.  Thus, 
before  the  huge  ice-mountain  can  bear  down  upon  the 
fragile  ship,  it  is  enabled  to  get  far  away  in  an  opposite 
direction. 

The  tasimeter  also  shows  with  equal  promptness  and 
accuracy  when  a  sudden  fire  has  broken  out. 

The  odoroscope  is  a  modification  of  the  tasimeter,  and 
is  so  named  from  its  usefulness  in  measuring  odour  inap- 
preciable to  the  human  sense. 

The  microphone,  which  was  invented  by  Edison  about 


DIVERS    INVENTIONS.  6 1 

this  time,  has  some  resemblance  to  a  telephone,  with  this 
difference,  that  it  magnifies  sound  in  transmitting  it.  So 
much  so,  indeed,  that  it  is  alleged  the  movement  of  a 
little  camel's-hair  brush  is  magnified  into  a  great  roar  like 
the  rushing  of  a  mighty  wind  through  the  murmuring 
leaves  of  forest  trees;  a  tiny  gnat  buzzing  about  gives  a 
sound  like  the  tramping  of  troops ;  whilst  the  ticking  of  a 
watch  and  the  beating  of  the  human  heart  can  be  heard  an 
altogether  incredible  distance  off. 

In  the  mechanism  of  the  microphone  there  are  several 
upright  carbon  pieces,  each  supported  by  a  light  spring. 
To  the  diaphragm  is  attached  a  carbon  button,  against 
which  the  first  carbon  piece  rests,  and  the  vibrations  in  the 
diaphragm  are  passed  in  turns  from  carbon  one  to  carbon 
two,  and  so  on,  with  the  result  that  the  sounds  communi- 
cated to  the  telephone  receiver  are  most  marvellously 
heightened. 

Two  of  Edison's  other  inventions,  which  are  not  yet 
used  in  commerce,  are  the  megaphone  and  aerophone. 
The  former  is  a  device  by  which  distant  sounds  may  be 
brought  to  the  ear  by  means  of  nothing  but  the  air  and  two 
funnels  six  feet  long,  mounted  on  a  tripod,  and  tapering 
from  a  diameter  of  two  feet  six  inches  at  the  mouth  to  a 
small  opening  attached  to  which  are  tubes  for  the  ears. 
Men  some  miles  apart  have  been  able  to  converse  by 
means  of  this  instrument,  and  the  sound  of  cattle  crunching 
grass  six  miles  away  has  been  heard  by  listeners  at  Menlo 
Park. 

The  aerophone  is  a  sort  of  exaggeration  of  the  phono- 
graph. It  is  an  instrument  which  not  only  transmits  the 
ordinary  tones  of  the  voice  to  an  indefinite  distance,  but 
also  magnifies  them  two  hundred  times.  In  fact,  it  not 
only  catches  up  casual  and  indiscreet  remarks,  but  roars 


62  DIVERS    INVENTIONS. 

them  out  to  the  adjoining  neighbourhood.  When  the 
public  was  apprised  of  Edison's  new  invention,  the  aero- 
phone, it  was  ridiculously  angry  at  this  invasion  of  its 
privacy,  and  shrank  from  the  exposure  which  such  a  tell-tale 
instrument  might  bring  about.  The  public  would  there- 
fore have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  and  perchance  in  that  it 
acted  wisely. 

'  Why  in  creation,  Edison,'  said  a  merchant,  one  day,  to 
the  great  inventor,  'don't  you  turn  your  attention  to 
inventing  something  that  would  save  this  endless  waste  of 
time  and  labour?'  The  speaker  was  referring  to  the  toil 
and  tediousness  of  much  writing. 

Edison  pondered  over  the  casual  hint,  and  the  result  of 
his  meditations,  and  the  experiments  consequent  upon 
them,  was  that  he  invented  the  electric  pen.  Here,  as 
Professor  Barrett  observes,  there  is  no  new  scientific  prin- 
ciple, but  merely  an  ingenious  arrangement  whereby  a 
very  swift  to-and-fro  motion  is  given  to  a  needle  point 
by  means  of  a  tiny  electric  magnet.  The  object  is  to 
puncture  the  paper  which  is  written  upon  by  the  pen,  so 
that  the  record  of  the  handwriting  is  left  in  a  myriad  of 
minute  holes.  Thus  a  paper  stencil-plate  is  formed,  from 
which  many  hundred  impressions  can  be  taken  by  means 
of  an  ordinary  inked  roller.  The  construction  of  the 
penholder  is  very  simple.  It  consists  of  a  needle,  the 
point  of  which  projects  scarcely  a  hundredth  of  an  inch 
beyond  its  enclosing  sheath.  At  the  upper  part  of  the 
small  fly-wheel,  the  shaft  of  the  wheel  forms  a  tiny  crank, 
which  is  attached  to  the  needle ;  as  the  wheel  revolves,  the 
needle  point  is  rapidly  pushed  out  of  the  sheath  and 
pulled  back,  just  like  the  sting  of  a  bee.  The  revolution 
of  the  fly-wheel  is  accomplished  by  a  small  electro-magnet 
animated  by  a  single  voltaic  cell.     So  swift  is  the  motion 


DIVERS    INVENTIONS.  6 


of  the  needle  that  rapid  writing  is  not  impeded — a  hole  is 
punched  in  the  paper,  and  the  needle  withdrawn  more 
rapidly  than  the  muscles  can  move  the  pen.  Every  letter 
is  thus  traced  out  in  innumerable  small  pin-hbles,  through 
which  the  ink  can  be  squeezed  when  copies  have  to  be 
taken,  while  the  holes  are  so  close  together  that  the  letters 
seem  to  be  continuous. 

A  modification  of  the  electric  pen  is  the  mimeograph, 
the  mode  of  using  which  is  as  follows :  A  sheet  of  thin 
waxed  paper  is  placed  over  a  steel  plate,  which  is  roughened 
like  a  very  fine  file,  and  presents  a  surface  of  very  sharp 
points.  The  operator  writes  on  the  prepared  paper  with 
a  smooth  steel-pointed  tool,  or  stylus,  and  then  perfor- 
ations are  made,  and,  by  means  of  an  ink  roller,  as 
many  as  two  thousand  copies  can  be  duplicated  from 
it,  all  of  them  exquisitely  legible. 

But  certainly  one  of  the  most  astonishing  inventions  of 
Edison's  is  telegraphy  from  a  moving  train.  When  this  is 
done  no  extra  wire  is  used,  but  the  air  alone  acts  as  a 
medium  for  carrying  the  electrical  currents  from  the  train 
apparatus  to  the  ordinary  telegraph  wires  running  by  the 
side  of  the  line.  With  Edison  in  this  successful  work  is 
incorporated  the  name  of  Phelps  ;  and  Messrs  Gilliland 
and  Smith  had  also  worked  at  the  invention. 

The  great  distance  travelled  by  railway  passengers  in 
America,  and  the  frequent  need  of  sending  a  message  after 
a  traveller,  already  on  his  way,  has  caused  inventors  to 
ponder  over  the  desirability  of  telegraphing  to  and  from 
trains  in  motion. 

The  principle  upon  which  the  inventors  have  worked  has 
always  been  the  same  :  they  have  taken  advantage  of  the 
law  of  electrical  induction,  by  which  a  current  sent  through 
a  wire  creates  a  sympathetic  current  in  a  wire  parallel  to 


64  DIVERS    INVENTIONS. 

it.  Thus,  if  an  insulated  wire  be  laid  down  between  the 
metals  of  a  track,  and  one  of  the  carriages  of  a  moving 
train  be  wound  round  with  coils  of  wire,  which  act  as  an 
inductive  receiver,  a  message  sent  along  the  track  wire  will 
jump  the  interval  between  it  and  the  carriage  in  question, 
and  be  received  by  the  operator  in  the  carriage  of  the 
moving  train,  who  will  at  once  convey  it  to  the  passenger 
who  sits  in  the  seat  the  number  of  which  is  indicated  on 
the  telegram. 

Afterwards  a  distinct  improvement  was  made  by  the 
inventors  in  elevating  the  conducting  wire  from  the  tracks 
upon  short  poles  by  the  side  of  the  line — about  ten  or 
twelve  feet  from  the  line.  The  poles  are  much  shorter 
than  ordinary  telegraph  poles,  being  from  ten  to  sixteen 
feet  high.  And  now,  whenever  practicable,  the  metal  roof 
of  the  carriage  is  employed  as  the  inductive  receiver ;  but 
where  no  metal  roof  exists,  the  plan  is  to  attach  a  wire 
to  the  roof,  which  wire  is  placed  under  the  eaves  of  the 
carriage.  As  the  operator  sits  in  his  carriage,  receiving 
and  transmitting  the  message,  a  battery  of  twelve  small 
cells  is  by  his  side  for  the  transmission  of  messages,  a  small 
tablet  is  on  his  knee  to  which  the  key,  the  coil,  and  the 
buzzer  are  attached,  and  there  is  just  sufficient  surface  to 
hold  a  telegraph  form.  A  telephone  is  fixed  under  his  cap 
and  pressed  closely  to  the  ear.  The  buzzing  message  just 
arrived  from  a  distant  station  left  by  the  train  some  time 
before  is  broken  up  into  Morse  characters  by  the  key,  and 
he  writes  it  on  the  telegraph  form  before  him. 

On  the  occasion  of  a  trial,  some  years  ago,  Colonel 
Gouraud  sent  the  following  despatch  from  a  moving  train 
to  Mr  Pender,  in  London,  via  the  Atlantic  cable  : 

'  I  am  telegraphing  these  words  while  comfortably  sitting 
in  a  car  of  the  Lehigh  Valley  Railway  Company,  flying 


DIVERS    INVENTIONS.  65 

through  the  beautiful  valley  of  that  name,  at  a  rate  of 
something  more  than  sixty  miles  an  hour,  by  that  marvel- 
lous system  invented  by  Edison  and  Phelps,  known  as 
the  induction  telegraph,  there  being,  of  course,  no  wire 
connecting  the  train  with  continuous  telegraph  wires  over 
which  the  message  is  now  passing,  the  current  jumping 
from  the  car  to  the  wires,  a  distance  of  twenty-five  feet. 
We  are  telegraphing  in  this  way  to  any  or  all  trains  on  the 
railway,  each  train  being  equally  in  connection  with  the 
train  despatches  This  is  the  first  message  sent  in  this 
manner  from  America  to  England.  A  large  party  of 
representative  telegraphists  and  scientists  are  the  guests  of 
the  Consolidated  Railway  Telegraph  Company,  amongst 
which  are  many  of  your  American  friends,  including  Mr 
Edison  and  President  Cheever.' 


CHAPTER     XII. 


1  IKE   a    fairy~taie "reads    the    further  history  of 
Edison's    most    wonderful    and   wonder-working 
inventions,    one   of   the   chief  of    which   is  _lh&- 
phonograph,  an  instrument  invented  in  the  spring  0^1877,, 
at  the  Menlo  Park  laboratory,   for  recording  and  repro- 
ducing human  speech  and  songs,  &c. 

Long  years  before,  Lieutenant  Maury,  the  distinguished 
student  of  storms  and  winds,  writing  to  a  friend  about  the 
invention  of  photography,  said,  '  What  a  pity  it  is  that  M. 
Daguerre,  instead  of  photography,  had  not  invented  a 
process  of  writing  by  merely  speaking  through  a  trumpet 
at  a  piece  of  paper !     Instead  of  saying,  - 1  wrote  you  a 

E 


66  THE   PHONOGRAPH. 

letter  last  Monday,'  the  phrase  would  have  been,  '  I  spoke 
you  a  ream!  Edison  had  not  read  this  letter,  which  had 
not  then  been  published,  when  he  began  the  experiments 
that  resulted  in  his  famous  phonograph. 

In  those  early  days  when  such  an  instrument  as  the 
phonograph  was  a  mere  possibility,  based  on  the  crudest 
of  material  foundations,  Edison,  speaking  of  the  instrument 
he  fain  would  create,  wrote  words  which  proved  to  be 
prophetic  :  '  This  tongueless,  toothless  instrument,  without 
larynx  or  pharynx,  dumb,  voiceless  matter,  nevertheless 
mimics  your  voice,  utters  your  words,  and  centuries  after 
you  have  crumbled  into  dust,  will  repeat  again  and  again 
to  a  generation  that  could  never  know  you,  every  idle 
thought,  every  fond  fancy,  every  vain  word  that  you  choose 
to  whisper  against  this  thin  iron  diaphragm.' 

■Ajtej_aU^jULjffias_by^  accident  that  he  discovered  the 
principle  on  which  he  IhacTeHhis  pho"nograpRT~  .Busy  wiTrr 
experiments  about  the  telephone,  'I  was  singing  to  the 
mouth-piece  of  a  telephone,'  he  said,  '  when  the  vibrations 
of  the  voice  sent  the  fine  steel. point  into  my  finger!  Th"aT~ 
set  me  thinking.  If  I  could  record  the  actions  oTTRe 
point,  and  send  the  point  over  the  same  surface  afterward, 
I  saw  no  reason  why  the  thing  would  not  talk.  I  tried  the 
experiment  first  on  a  strip  of  telegraph  paper,  and  found 
that  the  point  made  an  alphabet.  I  shouted  the  words, 
"  Halloo  !  halloo  ! "  into  the  mouth-piece,  ran  the  paper 
back  over  the  steel  point,  and  heard  a  faint  "  Halloo ! 
halloo  !  "  in  return.  I  determined  to  make  a  machine  that 
would  work  accurately,  and  gave  my  assistants  instructions, 
telling  them  what  I  had  discovered.  They  laughed  at  me. 
That 's  the  whole  story.  The  phonograph  is  the  result  of 
the  pricking  of  a  finger.' 
TKsfriend  Batchelor  was  sceptical  about  the  success  of 


68  THE    PHONOGRAPH. 

the  new  venture,  and  laughingly  bet  him  a  barrel  of  apples 
that  he  could  not  make  the  thing  go.  Edison,  however, 
made  a  drawing  of  a  model,  took  it  to  Mr  Kreusi,  who  was 
then  assisting  him,  and  told  him  it  was  a  talking  machine. 
He  smiled,  thinking  it  was  a  joke,  but  set  to  work  and 
soon  had  the  model  ready.  Then  Edison  arranged  some 
tinfoil  on  it,  and  spoke  into  the  machine.  Kreusi  looked 
on,  still  laughing  at  it.  '  But  when,'  said  Edison,  '  I 
arranged  the  machine  for  transmission,  and  we  both  heard 
a  distinct  sound  from  it,  he  nearly  fell  down  in  his  fright. 
I  was  a  little  scared  myself,  I  must  admit.  I  won  that 
barrel  of  apples  from  Batchelor,  though,  and  was  mighty 
glad  of  it.' 

The  facts  of  the  case  were  these  :  Following  up  some 
of  his  telegraph  inventions,  Edison  had  developed  a 
machine,  which  by  reason  of  the  indentations  made  on 
paper,  would  transfer  a  message  in  Morse  characters  from 
one  circuit  to  another  automatically,  through  the  agency 
of  a  tracing-point  connected  with  a  circuit-closing  device. 
Upon  rapidly  revolving  the  cylinder  that  carried  the 
indented  or  embossed  paper,  Mr  Edison  found  that  the 
indentations  could  be  reproduced  with  immense  rapidity 
through  the  vibrations  of  the  tracing-point.  Then  he  saw 
at  once  that  he  could  vibrate  a  diaphragm  by  the  sound- 
waves of  the  voice,  and  by  means  of  a  stylus  attached  to 
the  diaphragm  make  them  record  themselves  upon  an 
impressible  substance  placed  on  the  revolving  cylinder. 
The  record  being  thus  made,  the  diaphragm  would,  when 
the  stylus  again  traversed  the  cylinder,  be  thrown  into  the 
same  vibrations  as  before,  and  the  actual  reproduction  of 
human  speech  or  any  other  sound  would  be  the  result. 
At  first  the  invention  thus  thought  out  was  tried  with 
paraffined  paper  as  the  receiving  material,  and  afterwards 


THE    PHONOGRAPH.  69 

with  tinfoil.  The  records  were  made  on  soft  tinfoil  sheets 
fastened  round  metal  cylinders.  By-and-by,  however,  a 
light  tube  of  wax  to  slide  on  and  off  the  cylinder  was  sub- 
stituted for  the  tinfoil  which  had  been  wrapped  around, 
and  the  indenting  stylus  was  replaced  by  a  minute 
engraving  point.  Under  the  varying  pressure  of  the  sound 
waves,  this  point  or  knife  cut  into  the  tube  almost 
imperceptibly,  the  wax  chiselled  away  wreathing  off  in  very 
fine  spirals  before  the  edge  of  the  little  blade  as  the 
cylinder  travelled  under  it.  Each  cylinder  would  receive 
about  a  thousand  words.  In  the  improved  machine 
Edison  at  first  employed  two  diaphragms  in  'spectacle 
form,'  one  to  receive  and  the  other  to  reproduce,  but  he 
has  since  effectively  combined  these.  The  wax  cylinders 
can  be  used  several  hundred  times,  the  machine  being 
fitted  with  a  small  paring  tool,  which  will  shave  off  a 
record  that  has  been  used,  leaving  a  smooth  new  surface. 
The  machine  has  also  been  supplemented  by  Edison  with 
an  ingenious  little  electric  motor,  with  delicate  governing 
mechanism,  so  that  the  phonograph  can  be  operated  at 
any  chosen  rate  of  speed,  uniformly.  This  motor  gains 
its  energising  current  either  from  an  Edison-Lalande 
primary  battery,  a  storage  battery,  or  an  electric-light 
circuit. 

Infinite  pains  were  bestowed  by  the  great  inventor  on 
the  finer  shades  of  sound  repetition.  Aspirates  and 
sibilants  (letters  making  a  hissing  sound,  as  s  and  z,  are 
called  sibilant),  for  instance,  taxed  his  patience  exceedingly. 
With  his  usual  disregard  of  the  need  of  resting  when  bent 
upon  succeeding,  Edison,  we  are  told,  often  spent  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  hours  a  day,  for  six  or  seven  months 
together,  in  repeating  such  a  word  as  Spezia  into  the 
stubborn   surface   of  the   wax.     'Spezia,'   he   would   say 


70  THE   PHONOGRAPH. 

repeatedly  in  a  loud  voice.  '  Pezia,'  lisped  the  phonograph, 
like  a  shy  little  girl.  And  so  on  for  thousands  of  times, 
until  at  last  the  tube  gave  back  the  desired  result,  and 
Spezia  was  properly  pronounced. 

It  must  have  been  droll  to  hear  the  revered  man  of 
science,  with  his  many  honours  and  wide-spread  fame, 
gravely  repeating,  over  and  over  again,  such  infantile 
rhymes  as, 

'  Mary  had  a  little  lamb, 
A  little  lamb,  lamb,  LAMB,' 

with  emphasis,  into  his  tube. 

From  the  very  first,  even  as  made  with  the  crudest 
apparatus,  the  success  of  the  phonograph  was  marked. 
It  has  been  the  centre  of  interest  in  every  exhibition  which 
has  taken  place  since  1878,  and  most  of  the  distinctions 
conferred  upon  Edison  have  been  given  him  in  connection 
with  it. 

In  the  French  Exhibition  of  1878,  the  daily  concourse 
of  people  attracted  by  the  phonograph  alone  was  estimated 
at  30,000.  Forty-five  phonographs  were  shown,  and  men 
of  all  nationalities  heard  their  tones  reproduced  in  them. 
'  Never  before,'  it  was  said,  '  was  such  a  collection  of  the 
languages  of  the  whole  world  made.  It  was  the  first 
linguistic  concourse  since  Babel  times.' 

The  late  President  Carnot  and  his  family,  Mr.and  Mrs 
Gladstone,  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales,  the  Prince  of 
Monaco,  Buffalo  Bill,  and  De  Brazza,  the  famous  African 
explorer,  were  some  of  those  present  on  this  occasion. 
The  last-named  gentleman  was  hopeful  that  the  phono- 
graph would  be  of  great  use  in  Southern  Africa,  in  the 
way  of  recording  treaties  made  with  tribes  who  possess  no 
written  alphabet,  and  therefore  cannot  preserve  them  in 
any  other  way. 


THE    PHONOGRAPH.  7  I 

An  amusing  incident  occurred  at  tfeis  exhibition.  One 
of  the  Sioux  braves,  in  the  following  of  Buffalo  Bill,  was 
asked  to  speak  into  the  phonograph,  which  he  proceeded 
to  do  with  great  gravity.  But  when  he  heard  his  familiar 
gutturals  repeated  to  him  again,  he  was  greatly  alarmed, 
and  throwing  his  tubes  down,  sprang  back  some  paces,  with 
looks  of  terror.  The  poor  fellow  would  have  it  that  he  had 
heard  the  voice  of  the  Great  Spirit,  and  his  fellow-Indians 
could  not  be  induced  to  come  within  twenty  feet  of  the 
phonograph. 

The  mode  of  using  the  phonograph  is  quite  simple.  It 
is  only  necessary  to  talk  into  the  receiver  in  a  natural  tone 
of  voice,  and  in  one's  usual  manner,  after  which  the 
phonogram,  as  it  is  called,  is  taken  from  the  phonograph 
and  enclosed  in  a  little  box.  The  recipient  of  the  phono- 
gram places  it  in  his  apparatus,  and  then  setting  the 
machine  in  motion,  hears  the  familiar  voice  of  his  corre- 
spondent speaking  to  him. 

The  first  phonogram  in  this  country,  a  private  letter  of 
Edison's  to  his  representative,  Colonel  Gouraud,  of  Upper 
Norwood,  was  received  on  the  occasion  of  a  party  which 
had  been  assembled  at  his  house  'to  meet  Mr  Edison.' 
When  the  little  cylinder  was  placed  in  the  machine  await- 
ing it,  Mr  Edison's  voice  began  to  speak,  with  the  most 
startling  effects  upon  those  present,  even  the  children 
recognising  the  tones  of  the  inventor's  voice. 

An  amusing  phonogram  addressed  to  the  London  press, 
began,  '  Gentlemen,  in  the  name  of  Edison,  to  whose  rare 
genius,  incomparable  patience,  and  indefatigable  industry  I 
owe  my  being,  I  greet  you.  I  thank  you  for  the  honour 
you  do  me  by  your  presence  here  to-day.  My  only  regret 
is  that  my  great  master  is  not  here  to  meet  you  in  the  flesh 
as  he  is  in  voice,'  and  so  on. 


72  THE   PHONOGRAPH. 

This  phonogram,  together  with  several  others,  was 
exhibited  by  Colonel  Gouraud  at  the  Crystal  Palace  in 
1888.  Several  musical  pieces  were  also  given,  from  a 
whistled  operatic  air  to  a  cornet  and  piano  duet. 

Here  several  distinguished  men  availed  themselves  of 
Edison's  permission  to  talk  to  him,  and  early  in  the  following 
January  he  received  several  cylinders,  enclosed  in  a  little 


Transmitting  Cornet  Solo  in  the  Phonograph. 

oak  box,   containing   speeches  to  him  by  Gladstone,  Sir 
Morell  Mackenzie,  and  others. 

Gladstone's  words  were :  'lam  profoundly  indebted  to 
you  for  not  the  entertainment  only,  but  the  instruction 
and  marvels  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  evenings  which 
it  has  been  my  privilege  to  enjoy.  Your  great  country  is 
leading   the   way   in   the   important   work   of    invention. 


74  THE    PHONOGRAPH. 

Heartily  do  we  wish  it  well ;  and  to  you,  as  one  of  its 
greatest  celebrities,  allow  me  to  offer  my  hearty  good- 
wishes  and  earnest  prayers  that  you  may  long  live  to 
witness  its  triumphs,  in  all  that  appertains  to  the  well- 
being  of  mankind.' 

Queen  Victoria  also  sent  a  message  to  the  inventor 
by  means  of  one  of  his  phonograms,  in  very  gracious  terms. 
Henry  Irving  and  others  sent  their  congratulations,  or 
messages  of  approval,  and  songs  and  tunes  were  sent  off 
to  him  in  America.  During  the  Handel  festival  of  1888, 
a  huge  horn  which  was  placed  in  the  press  gallery  of  the 
Crystal  Palace  concert-room,  gathered  up  the  volume  of 
sound  from  four  thousand  voices,  the  powerful  organ  and 
orchestra  playing  and  singing  Handel's  Israel  in  Egypt, 
all  which  was  in  America  afterwards  reproduced  by  the 
phonograph,  in  the  most  wonderful  way,  before  large 
audiences  of  people  in  America's  largest  cities. 

Edison  himself  said  the  phonograph  would  be  found 
useful  for  letter-writing,  the  teaching  of  elocution,  the 
reproduction  of  music,  and  the  family  record,  which  would 
preserve  the  sayings,  reminiscences,  and  so  on  of  members 
of  a  family  in  their  own  voices,  and  the  last  words  of  dying 
people.  Also  it  would  be  useful  for  musical  boxes  and 
toys,  clocks  that  should  tell  the  time  in  speech,  and  for 
educational  purposes,  so  preserving  the  explanations  made 
by  a  teacher  that  his  pupils  can  refer  to  them  any  moment; 
or  spelling  and  other  lessons  could  be  put  on  the  phono- 
graph, and  committed  to  memory  afterwards  at  the  con- 
venience of  the  learner.  Again,  in  connection  with  a 
telephone,  it  would  be  of  use  so  as  to  make  that  invention 
an  auxiliary  in  the  transmission  of  permanent  and  valuable 
records.  And  he  adds  another  use  which  seems  to  me 
to  be  particularly  pleasing  and  beneficial :   phonographic 


THE    PHONOGRAPH.  75 

books  could  be  made  which  would  speak  to  blind  people 
without  any  effort  on  their  part.  Not  only  have  these 
claims  of  Edison's  been  more  than  substantiated,  but  each 
year  brings  forward  more  uses  for  the  phonograph  than 
even  those  thought  of  by  the  inventor's  fertile  brain.  The 
phonograph  has  been  found  helpful  in  restoring  the  deaf, 
by  stimulating  the  dormant  functions  of  their  ears  by  means 
of  the  vibratory  force  conveyed  from  the  cylinder  of  the 
phonograph. 

Perhaps,  however,  the  prettiest  use  to  which  the  phono- 
graph has  been  put  is  in  the  matter  of  children's  toys. 
By  inserting  miniature  phonographs  in  dolls,  they  are 
made  to  say  nursery  rhymes,  or  coo,  or  cry  very  like  a  real 
baby. 

The  Queen  of  Holland  was  presented  with  the  first 
three  of  these  accomplished  dolls,  to  the  no  small  delight 
of  the  royal  nursery. 

The  demand  for  these  phonographic  playthings  has 
been  so  great  that  the  jCdison  Phonograph  Toy  Company 
has  been  formed,  which  has  turned  over  an  immense 
amount  of  money.  The  dolls'  bodies  are  made  in  European 
factories,  and  then  they  are  sent  to  the  Orange  phono- 
graphic works  at  New  Jersey,  to  be  fitted  with  the  tiny 
phonograms. 

As  for  the  application  of  the  phonographs  to  clocks, 
this  has  been  done  at  Edison's  own  house  so  successfully, 
that  a  guest  of  his  was  terribly  alarmed  by  being  awoke 
out  of  sleep  in  the  night  with  the  words  spoken  in  a  loud 
sepulchral  tone  of  voice,  '  Midnight  has  struck/  followed 
by  the  solemn  words,  '  Prepare  to  meet  thy  God.' 

The  hapless  visitor  rose  and  fled  into  the  passage,  where 
he  met  the  inventor  himself,  who  mildly  remarked,  '  Don't 
be  scared,  old  man;  it's  nothing  but  the  clock.' 


76  THE    PHONOGRAPH. 

Very  general  has  become  the  use  of  the  phonograph 
in  many  business  ways ;  several  thousands  are  distributed 
amongst  American  business-offices,  where  they  facilitate 
correspondence.  They  are  also  employed  by  stenographers 
as  a  help  in  the  transcription  of  their  shorthand  notes. 
Heretofore,  these  notes  have  been  slowly  dictated  to 
amanuenses,  but  they  are  now  frequently  read  off  to  a 
phonograph,  and  then  written  out  at  leisure.  The  phono- 
graph is,  however,  being  used  for  direct  stenographic  work, 
and  it  reported  verbatim  forty  thousand  words  of  discus- 
sion at  a  convention  held  in  1890,  the  words  being 
quietly  repeated  into  the  machine  by  the  reporter  as 
quickly  as  they  were  uttered  by  the  various  speakers. 

A  large  number  of  phonographs  are  in  use  by  actors, 
clergymen,  musicians,  reciters,  and  others,  to  improve  their 
elocution  and  singing.  Automatic  phonographs  are  prob- 
ably familiar  to  us  all,  as  they  are  to  be  found  in  many 
places  of  public  resort,  equipped  with  musical  or  elocu- 
tionary cylinders,  which  can  be  heard  on  the  insertion  of 
a  small  coin.  The  value  of  the  phonograph  in  the  pre- 
servation of  dying  languages  has  been  proved,  too,  and 
records  have  already  been  secured  of  the  speech,  songs, 
war-cries,  and  folk-lore  of  American  tribes  which  are 
becoming  extinct.  Several  voice  records,  also,  remain  to 
us  yet  of  distinguished  men,  who  'being  dead,  yet -speak.' 
Their  tones  can  now  be  renewed  at  will,  and  their  very 
utterances  can  be  heard  again  and  again  through  all  time. 
The  machine  in  a  more  or  less  modified  form  is  also  being 
used  to  furnish  a  record  of  communications  made  through 
the  telephone. 

Large  sums  of  money  have  of  course  accrued  to  Edison 
from  the  immense  success  of  this  single  unique  machine; — 


ELECTRIC    RAILROADING. 


77 


CHAPTER    XII I. 


ELECTRIC    RAILROADING. 


O  you  want  to  see  my  novel?'  Edison  asked  a 
writer  of  fiction  one  day,  after  the  latter  had 
given  him  some  of  his  books. 

'  Yes/  was  the  somewhat  wondering  reply. 

The  great  inventor  at  once  took  out  of  his  desk  a  short 
but  very  thick  blank  book,  and,  turning  the  pages,  dis- 
played a  number  of  rough  sketches,  accompanied  by 
pencil  notes.  The  sketches  were  plans  or  general  out- 
lines of  mechanical  contrivances,  each  of  which  had  a  page 
by  itself,  and  the  date  when  it  was  scribbled.  Nearly 
every  day  in  a  month  was  represented  by  some  such 
entry. 

'  These  ideas  are  occurring  to  me  all  the  time,'  said 
Edison.  'Some  of  them  are  for  new  inventions,  others 
are  proposed  improvements  in  existing  machines — both 
other  people's  and  my  own  machines.  I  just  dot  them 
down  here  whenever  they  strike  me,  day  or  night,  and 
keep  them  with  the  hope  of  getting  leisure  to  develop 
them.' 

Electric  railroading  was  one  of  the  earliest  branches  of 
locomotive  science  Edison  experimented  with.  One  day, 
with  a  view  to  making  a  mountain-climbing  electrical  rail- 
road, he  was  busy  experimenting  with  a  car,  in  which  rode 
a  small  boy,  on  a  track  he  had  built  on  a  down  grade  at 
an  angle  of  forty  degrees,  using  grippers  to  catch  the  rail. 
All  at  once,   however,   his  grippers   broke,   and   the    car 


78  ELECTRIC    RAILROADING. 

rushed  down  the  hill  so  rapidly  that  the  small  boy  was 
in  danger  of  being  killed.  That  checked  the  experiments 
in  that  line. 

Very  different  and  much  more  practical,  however,  was 
the  line  of  electric  railroading  which  was  set  up  at  Menlo 
Park,  and  carried  out  with  considerable  success  later  on. 
The  current  was  furnished  from  the  laboratory,  and  passed 
into  the  rails,  which  were  pitched  for  insulation  from  the 
ground.  Entering  through  one  rail  and  passing  up  through 
the  wheels,  which  were  insulated  from  the  shaft,  the  current 
passed  thence  to  the  motor  and  out  through  the  other 
wheel.     The  motor  was  simply  one  of  Edison's  dynamos. 

An  amusing  story  is  told  of  Edison's  having  a  little  fun 
— in  all  his  arduous  toils  he  never  lost  his  boyish  love  of 
fun — at  the  expense  of  the  directors  and  shareholders  of 
the  line,  when  he  invited  them  to  go  upon  a  trial  trip. 
After  the  customary  greetings  and  civilities,  the  gentlemen 
took  their  seats,  with  the  anticipation  that,  first  of  all, 
they  would  hear  a  proper  scientific  explanation  from 
Edison  of  the  new  system.  But  their  serious  demeanour 
and  solemn  faces  upset  Edison's  gravity  entirely.  With- 
out one  word  to  prepare  them  for  it,  he  suddenly  turned 
the  motive  power  on  to  his  line  in  all  its  force.  Faster 
and  ever  faster,  at  the  rate  of  forty  miles  an  hour,  flew 
the  engine;  greater  and  greater  grew  the  terror  of  the 
passengers.  The  directors'  hats  were  carried  off,  their 
coat-tails  fluttered  in  the  breeze,  and  agonised  entreaties 
to  him  to  stop  the  engine  were  to  be  heard.  But  Edison, 
for  a  little  while,  only  increased  the  speed. 

Shortly  after  that,  the  inventor  found  that  he  had  two 
rivals  in  electric  locomotion,  Messrs  Siemens  and  Field. 
When  the  matter  was  tried  in  court,  the  claims  of  Siemens 
were  dismissed,  and  Edison  effected  a  consolidation  with 


ELECTRIC    RAILROADING.  79 

Mr  Field,  which  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  United 
States  Electric  Railway  Company. 

At  the  Chicago  Exhibition,  soon  afterwards,  their  first 
electric  railroad  was  shown  to  the  world,  and  their  electric 
locomotive,  which  was  called  'the  Judge,'  was  greatly 
admired.  During  the  thirteen  days  whilst  it  ran  to  and 
fro  upon  the  limited  line  of  about  one-third  of  a  mile,  it 
carried  28,805  passengers,  and  made  1588  trips.  After- 
wards it  was  taken  to  the  Louisville  Exhibition,  where  an 
electric  railroad  was  prepared  for  it,  and  there,  too,  it  won 
immense  applause. 

Now  there  is  brisk  and  extensive  locomotion  going  on 
in  different  places,  and  it  is  but  a  question  of  time  when 
the  work  of  the  steam  locomotive  will  fall  to  the  electric 
car.  The  latter  is  now  supplanting  steam  in  the  long 
tunnel  under  the  city  of  Baltimore,  where  whole  trains, 
both  luggage  and  passenger,  are  drawn  along,  six  or  seven 
miles,  by  powerful  electric  motors.  The  engineers  study- 
ing the  gradual  details  of  electrical  locomotion  are  still 
uncertain  whether  the  better  plan  will  be  to  have  a  sepa- 
rate locomotive  drawing  the  train  of  the  future,  or  whether 
each  carriage  or  truck  is  to  be  furnished  with  its  own 
motor. 

Mr  Lenier  says  that  the  possible  speed  is  to  be  limited 
only  by  the  problems  of  the  cohesion  of  steel  in  the  rails 
and  engines.  He  asked  Mr  Edison  what  in  his  opinion 
was  the  practical  speed  limit  on  the  horizon  of  electrical 
locomotion,  and  he  replied,  '  Perhaps  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  an  hour.'  But  he  believes  that  before  we  come 
to  moving  heavy  trains  by  electricity — to  which  there  are 
serious,  although  not  insuperable  obstacles — we  shall  shoot 
our  mail  through  the  country  by  some  electrical  device 
of  telpherage  construction. 


8o  ELECTRIC   LIGHT. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

ELECTRIC    LIGHT. 


PON  being  asked  which  of  his  inventions  caused 
him  the  greatest  amount  of  study,  and  needed 
the  most  elaborate  experiments,  Edison  promptly 
replied,  'The  electric  light;  for  although  I  was  never 
myself  discouraged,  or  inclined  to  be  hopeless  of  success, 
1  cannot  say  the  same  for  all  my  associates.' 

And  then  he  went  on  to  say  that,  through  all  those  years 
of  experimenting  and  research,  he  never  once  made  a  dis- 
covery. All  his  work  was  deductive,  and  the  results 
achieved  were  those  of  invention  pure  and  simple.  He 
would  construct  a  theory,  and  work  on  its  lines  until  he 
found  it  was  untenable.  Then  it  would  be  discarded  at 
once,  and  another  theory  evolved.  This  was  the  only 
possible  way  in  which  he  could  work  out  the  problem,  for 
the  conditions  under  which  the  incandescent  electric  light 
exists  are  peculiar  and  unsatisfactory  for  close  investigation. 

'Just  consider  this,'  he  said.  'We  have  an  almost 
infinitesimal  filament,  heated  to  a  degree  which  it  is  diffi- 
cult for  us  to  comprehend ;  and  it  is  in  a  vacuum,  under 
conditions  of  which  we  are  wholly  ignorant.  You  cannot 
use  your  eyes  to  help  you  in  the  investigation,  and  you 
really  know  nothing  of  what  is  going  on  in  that  tiny  bulb.' 
He  had  made  three  thousand  different  theories,  he  con- 
tinued, in  connection  with  electric  light,  each  of  which 
seemed  reasonable  and  likely  to  be  true.  Yet  in  only 
two  cases  had  his  experiments  proved  the  truth  of  the 


ELECTRIC    LIGHT.  8 1 

theory.  His  chief_jlifficulty  was  in  constructing  the 
carbon  filament,  the  incandescence  of  which  was  the 
source  of  light.  Every  quarter  of  the  globe  was  ransacked 
by  his  agents,  and  all  sorts  of  the  queerest  materials  were 
used,  until,  at  length,  a  peculiar  shred  of  bamboo  was 
fixed  upon. 

From  the  time  of  Sir  Humphry  Davy's  first  practical 
contribution  to  the  science  of  electric  lighting  in  1812, 
men  of  science  had  repeatedly  striven  to  perfect  and  make 
practicable  the  electric  light.  They  had  been  baffled  by 
many  difficulties ;  amongst  these,  notably  that  of  great 
expense,  and  also  of  the  short  duration  of  the  lights  when 
obtained.  The  celebrated  Jablochkoff  candles,  for  in- 
stance, only  lasted  a  few  hours. 

Then  Edison  took  the  matter  up  in  his  persevering  and 
masterly  way.  First,  he  made  an  incandescent  solid, 
which  was  a  great  success.  Then,  on  the  16th  of  October 
1879,  he  and  Mr  Eatchelor  were  hard  at  work,  trying  to 
maTtelTcirrbon  filament  into  a  lamp.  A  cotton  thread  was 
firsTTaken,  and  a  peculiarly  shaped  groove  just  wide  enough 
to  hold  the  thread  was  cut  in  a  nickel  plate,  which  was 
placed  in  a  small  nickel  mould  and  filled  with  charcoal. 
For  five  hours  they  carbonised  and  cooked  the  mould. 
But  upon  Mr  Batchelor's  taking  it  out  of  the  groove,  it  at 
once  fell  to  pieces. 

The  experiments  were  repeated,  neither  man  going  to 
bed  on  the  nights  of  the  16th  and  17th.  On  a  late  hour 
of  the  night  of  the  18th,  a  filament  was  rescued  intact; 
but  it  unfortunately  broke  as  they  were  securing  it  to  the 
conducting  wire. 

With  characteristic  indomitableness,  Edison  suggested 
that  they  should  make  a  lamp  before  they  slept,  or  perish 
in  the  attempt. 


82  ELECTRIC    LIGHT. 

To  this  Mr  Batchelor  agreed,  and  work  was  resumed. 
At  last,  on  the  morning  of  the  20th,  a  perfect  specimen 
was  obtained.  But,  alas  !  in  carrying  it  from  the  labora- 
tory to  the  glass-blowing  building,  a  slight  breeze  whirled 
it  from  its  fastening  and  blew  it  to  a  powder. 

1  Edison,  it 's  gone — broken  by  the  wind  !  I  'm  sick, 
I  'm  disgusted  ! '  cried  poor  Mr  Batchelor,  worn  by  fasting 
and  sleeplessness. 

On^e^gist^^Jiowever,  a  lamp  was  completed,  lighted, 
and  eagerly  watched  by  thirty  experimenters.  Then 
Edison  and  Batchelor  allowed  themselves  to  sleep  for  a 
few  hours.  When  they  awoke,  they  found,  to  their  satis- 
faction, that  the  lamp  was  still  burning.  For  several  days 
it  burnt  on,  until,  at  length,  the  soft  glow  faded.  This 
was  the  first  specimen  of  the  Edison  incandescent  light. 

In  great  excitement  at  the  success  of  that  first  lamp, 
thirty  or  more  of  Edison's  assistants  set  to  work  at  once  to 
try  to  carbonise  every  material  which  seemed  likely  to  yield 
the  necessary  amount  of  carbon.  A  graphic  picture  is 
drawn  us  by  Edison's  biographers,  of  the  eager,  hard- 
working men  in  the  great  workshop,  toiling  until  they 
were  perforce  obliged  to  lie  down  and  sleep  anywhere,  on 
bench,  or  floor,  or  table,  just  as  it  happened ;  others 
working  on,  meanwhile,  with  bloodshot  eyes  and  tense 
brows. 

'These  were  the  pioneers  of  the  electric  light,'  said 
Edison;  'and  to  their  faithful  labours  is  due  the  wide- 
spread introduction  of  the  system.' 

Whilst  Edison  was  still  experimenting  in  the  endeavour 
to  find  a  filament  which  would  answer  his  purpose  better 
than  the  one  which  had  with  such  difficulty  been  made  to 
do  duty  for  the  first  specimen  of  incandescent  light,  he 
remembered    a    passage    in   Humboldt's   writings   which 


ELECTRIC    LIGHT.  83 

described  the  properties  of  a  certain  kind  of  bamboo  that 
grew  on  the  banks  of  the  Amazon.  As  he  more  closely 
examined  this  description,  he  became  convinced  that  in 
vegetable  fibre  alone  could  be  found  the  exact  material  for 
which  he  had  been  so  long  looking.  After  that,  therefore, 
he  sent  from  time  to  time  chosen  emissaries  to  far-distant 
lands,  to  find  out  if  possible  where  grew  the  particular 
kind  of  bamboo  which  would  best  answer  his  purpose. 

Mr  William  Moore  was  the  first  discoverer  of  the 
required  bamboo,  which  he  found  for  Edison  in  the  year 
1880.  This  gentleman  travelled  in  China  and  Japan,  and 
was  eminently  successful  in  his  search  for  the  fine  fibre  of 
the  bamboo,  which  he  found  furnished  a  conductor  of  the 
requisite  resisting  power  for  the  incandescent  lamp.  This 
fibre  is  still  in  use,  nothing  better  having  been  as  yet 
discovered. 

Not  being  certain,  however,  that  there  was  no  superior 
bamboo  for  the  work,  Edison,  as  we  have  seen,  sent  out 
others  to  make  still  further  investigations.  Mr  McGowan, 
a  gentleman  of  Celtic  birth,  and  consequently  energetic 
and  enterprising,  went  off  to  search  the  vicinity  of  the 
Amazon,  which  he  accordingly  did  for  two  thousand  three 
hundred  miles,  in  spite  of  dangers  from  wild  beasts,  reptiles, 
fevers,  and  predatory  Indians.  He  explored  the  great 
continent  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  passing  through 
districts  so  beset  by  wild  beasts,  and  so  heavy  with 
poisonous  exhalations,  that  they  were  avoided  even  by  the 
natives.  For  one  hundred  and  sixteen  days  he  tasted  no 
meat,  and  did  not  change  his  clothes  for  ninety-eight 
days. 

'  I  '11  make  the  trip,  do  my  duty  or  die,'  he  said  boldly, 
to  those  who  tried  to  dissuade  him  from  penetrating  into 
particularly  dangerous  regions. 


84  ELECTRIC    LIGHT. 

On  one  occasion  he  was  deserted  by  all  his  Indian 
followers  but  one  faithful  man,  who  would  not  leave  him. 
Another  time,  when  he,  with  a  fresh  band  of  Indians,  was 
busily  searching  for  bamboos  about  five  miles  from  the 
Napo  River,  they  all  had  a  tremendous  fight  with  a  '  tiger ' 
or  jaguar.  Many  varieties  of  bamboo  were  found  by  this 
indefatigable  explorer,  of  many  different  sizes — in  some 
places  they  never  exceeded  four  inches  in  diameter,  or 
forty  feet  in  height,  and  in  others  they  grew  from  six  to 
nine  inches  in  diameter  and  from  seventy-five  to  a 
hundred  feet  in  height. 

Not  long  after  his  return  from  this  satisfactory  expedition, 
McGowan  suddenly  and  mysteriously  disappeared.  Search 
was  made  for  him,  but  in  vain  ;  no  trace  of  him  could 
be  discovered.  It  was  then  thought  that  he  had  either 
been  taken  suddenly  ill  and  died  before  he  could 
communicate  with  his  friends,  or  else  that,  in  his  American 
travels,  he  had  fallen  in  love  with  some  beautiful  native 
maiden,  for  whose  sake  he  had  for  ever  left  the  more 
civilised  though  less  poetically  beautiful  regions  of 
mankind. 

Still  unsatisfied  as  to  what  further  might  remain  to  be 
discovered  in  other  quarters  of  the  globe,  Edison 
determined,  much  later  on,  to  despatch  an  explorer  for 
bamboo  to  Ceylon,  the  Indian  peninsula,  and  adjacent 
countries.     With  his  usual  skill  he  chose  an  able  man. 

Mr  Ricalton,  the  school  principal  of  Maplewood,  N.J., 
was  busily  engaged  one  day  in  his  schoolroom,  when  he 
received  a  note  from  Mr  Edison,  requesting  him  to  be  so 
good  as  to  come  and  see  him.  Wondering  what  the 
Wizard  would  require  of  one  in  the  scholastic  line,  the 
schoolmaster,  at  the  appointed  time,  entered  the  inventor's 
great  laboratory,  and  was  conducted  to  his  presence. 


ELECTRIC   LIGHT.  85 

*  You  like  travel,  I  believe  ?'  was  Edison's  first  remark. 

'  Rather,'  replied  the  schoolmaster. 

1 1  want  a  man  to  ransack  the  world  for  a  fibre ;  how 
would  you  like  to  undertake  that?'  was  the  next  question. 

'  That  would  suit  me,'  said  Mr  Ricalton. 

'  How  soon  could  you  start  ?'  asked  the  other. 

The  schoolmaster  said  he  must  first  get  permission  from 
the  Board  of  Education  to  vacate  his  position  as  principal 
of  the  school.  The  Board  would  have  to  procure  a 
substitute  for  him,  and  then  he  would  require  a  little  time 
for  preparation. 

'Oh,  I  want  you  to  start  to-morrow,'  said  the  great 
man. 

'  But,  Mr  Edison,  I  must  have  a  little  time ;  you  want 
me  to  search  the  world — the  world  is  large,  and  I  have 
buttons  to  sew  on,'  remarked  the  other  humorously. 

'Well,'  rejoined  Edison,  'it  is  somewhat  of  an  under- 
taking. It  may  take  you  three  years,  and  you  may  succeed 
in  six  months;  so  lose  no  time  in  securing  a  leave  of 
absence,  take  a  week  or  two  for  preparations,  come  to  my 
laboratory  daily  during  that  time  for  experimentation ; 
when  you  have  completed  your  experimental  work,  go  into 
the  library  and  study  the  flora  of  the  tropics ;  learn  the 
habits  of  every  species  of  bamboo,'  and  so  on.  Edison 
agreed  to  prepare  him  meantime  a  complete  outfit  of 
tools  for  testing  the  fibrous  products  of  the  tropics. 

Two  weeks  of  preparation  were  spent  in  this  way,  and 
then,  having  obtained  the  necessary  leave  of  absence  from 
the  Board  of  Education,  Mr  Ricalton  sailed  for  India. 

In  Ceylon,  where  he  visited  every  part  of  the  island,  he 
found  the  most  magnificent  species  of  the  bamboo  family, 
although,  he  says,  it  is  a  native  of  Burma.  It  is  called 
the  giant  bamboo,  and  clumps  of  from  one  hundred  to  two 


86  ELECTRIC   LIGHT. 

hundred  may  be  seen,  reaching  to  a  height  of  120  feet, 
and  measuring  from  ten  to  twelve  inches  in  diameter. 
From  Ceylon  he  crossed  to  India,  ascending  the  Himalayas 
to  an  altitude  of  6000  feet,  where  he  found  some  fine 
specimens  of  the  bamboo  family.  In  Japan,  which  he 
next  visited,  his  search  was  simplified  by  finding  a  complete 
collection  of  bamboos  in  the  Botanical  Gardens  and 
Museum  at  Tokio.  When  he  left  Edison's  laboratory,  the 
great  electrician  placed  a  sample  of  bamboo  in  his  hand, 
saying,  '  If  you  find  as  good  as  that,  I  will  be  satisfied.' 
And  now,  in  two  localities  of  the  tropical  belt  through 
which  he  passed,  Mr  Ricalton  found  fibre  which  stood  a 
much  higher  test  as  a  carbon  than  the  sample  Mr  Edison 
gave  him.  But  he  afterwards  found  its  splitting  qualities 
were  not  so  good.  His  intention  had  been  to  visit  Java, 
Borneo,  and  the  Asiatic  Islands,  but  thinking  the  two 
different  fibres  already  found  were  quite  good  enough  for 
the  purpose  for  which  they  were  wanted,  he  set  out  on  his 
return  journey. 

Mr  Ricalton  tells  the  story  of  his  reception  by  Edison, 
when  he  again  reached  his  laboratory,  in  the  following 
words  : 

'  The  first  time  I  met  Mr  Edison  after  my  return  I  shall 
not  soon  forget,  as  showing  how  ordinarily  important 
things  are  looked  upon  as  trifles  in  a  mind  so  fully 
occupied.  I  had  spent  a  year  in  an  unusually  hazardous 
search,  embracing  a  circuit  of  the  globe,  and  entailing  an 
expense  that  would  be  a  fortune  to  many  a  toiler.  He 
was  passing  through  the  laboratory  on  his  incessant 
supervisory  work ;  he  extended  his  hand,  smiled,  and,  with 
a  brief  "Did  you  get  it?" hurried  on  to  the  thousand-and- 
one  exigences  with  which  his  wondrously  busy  life  is 
filled.' 


ELECTRIC  LIGHT.  87 

Mr  Edison,  he  was  informed,  was  then  using  an  artificial 
carbon,  which  he  expected  would  supersede  the  bamboo, 
and  Mr  Ricalton  never  learned  whether  any  practical  use 
was  ever  made  of  the  fibres  he  had  found. 

Edison  has  never  claimed  to  be  the  original  discoverer 
of  electric  light.  But  he  does  claim  that  the  desultory  and 
immature  principles  of  his  predecessors  were  by  him  made 
into  a  complete  whole.  By  him  the  incandescent  electric 
light  was  taken  from  its  hiding-place  in  the  laboratory,  and 
made  of  practical  utility.  Instead  of  a  costly  toy,  it  has 
become  an  important  adjunct  to  public  life. 

In  the  winter  of  1880,  at  Menlo  Park,  the  first  public 
exhibition  of  the  new  electric  lamp  was  given.  Special 
trains  conveyed  visitors  there  from  all  parts  of  the  United 
States.  They  came  from  motives  of  scientific  or  com- 
mercial curiosity.  Seven  hundred  lamps  were  distributed 
in  the  most  effective  manner  throughout  the  grounds, 
streets,  and  all  about  the  Edison  Works.  Most  of  the 
conductors  were  laid  under  ground,  much  as  gas  is  laid ; 
and  thus  was  demonstrated  the  inventor's  assertion  as  to 
the  entire  practicability  of  electrical  commercial  lighting. 
Cautious  capitalists  thereupon  plied  him  with  schemes  for 
the  extension  of  his  methods.  A  company  was  formed  to 
work  the  new  incandescent  light,  and  the  stock,  whose 
par  value  was  only  a  hundred  dollars  a  share,  rapidly  rose 
until  it  was  three  thousand.  Newspapers  and  visitors  vied 
with  each  other  in  spreading  the  tidings  of  the  glorious 
electric  light,  which  soon  became  famous  and  much  sought 
after. 

An  amusing  story  is  told  of  a  scientific  dispute  which 
took  place  about  this  time.  A  certain  schoolmaster  had 
been  an  interested  spectator  at  the  Menlo  Park  illum- 
ination, as  he  had  exerted  his  faculties  in  following  up 


88  ELECTRIC    LIGHT. 

Edison's  experiments  with  the  electric  light ;  and  upon  his 
return  to  the  hamlet  (SufTern)  in  which  he  lived,  and  where 
his  word  was  unquestioned  on  matters  of  science  and 
erudition,  he  was  appealed  to  by  the  villagers  to  explain 
the  nature  of  a  brilliant  light  which  appeared  in  the 
western  sky. 

With  his  mind  full  of  the  wonders  he  had  witnessed  in 
the  way  of  electrical  lighting  at  Menlo  Park,  and  with  the 
most  credulous  belief  in  the  powers  of  its  inventor,  the 
worthy  schoolmaster  promptly  pronounced  the  new  light 
that  overhung  the  Remapo  Mountains  to  be  an  electric 
light.  When  asked  for  further  explanations,  he  gave  it  out 
that  Edison  was  experimenting  with  an  electric  light  and 
a  balloon  at  Menlo  Park— forty  miles  distant — to  see  how 
long  that  sort  of  illumination  would  burn  in  the  upper 
regions  of  the  air.  Moreover,  he  stated  that  upon  the 
successful  issue  of  this  test  important  results  depended, 
the  system  being  under  consideration  of  government,  which 
was  considering  it  in  relation  to  coast-lighting  and  signal- 
service.  Now  in  the  little  hamlet  every  one  but  the  post- 
master assented  to  this  view  of  the  matter.  But  the  post- 
master recognised  in  the  new  light  a  distinct  resemblance 
to  a  planet.  Public  opinion,  however,  scouted  this  idea, 
and  the  notion  that  it  was  an  electrical  light  of  Edison's 
prevailed,  until  it  was  proved  to  be  nothing  of  the  sort. 

Many  tributes,  say  Mr  and  Mrs  Dickson,  have  been 
laid  at  the  inventor's  feet,  but  none  which  will  vie  with  the 
above  in  absolute  naivete  of  admiration. 

At  the  Paris  Electrical  Exhibition,  soon  after,  the  new 
Edison  incandescent  lamp  was  displayed  very  extensively, 
and  its  inventor  became  the  recipient  of  five  gold  medals 
and  a  diploma  of  honour,  which  was  the  highest  distinction 
bestowed  on  any  exhibitor. 


ELECTRIC    LIGHT.  89 

On  that  occasion  Edison  received  this  cablegram  from 
the  official  headquarters  of  the  exhibition  : 

'  Official  list,  published  to-day,  shows  you  in  the  highest 
class  of  inventors.  No  other  exhibitor  of  electric  light  in 
that  class.  Swan,  Fox,  and  Maxim  receive  medals 
in  class  below.  The  sub-juries  have  voted  you  five  gold 
medals,  but  General  Congress  promoted  you  to  the 
diploma  of  honour.  This  is  complete  success,  the  Con- 
gress having  nothing  further  to  give.' 

Other  telegrams,  containing  compliments  and  congratu- 
lations from  men  of  science,  followed.  Swan,  the  proprietor 
of  the  Swan  Incandescent  Light  in  England,  generously 
cabled  :  '  You  have  received  the  highest  award  the  jury  has 
to  give.     I  congratulate  you.' 

The  new  system  spread  'like  wildfire.'  The  following 
year,  at  the  Crystal  Palace  Electrical  Exhibition  of  London, 
Edison's  light  attracted  general  attention.  Mr  and  Mrs 
Dickson's  description  of  the  display  made  on  this  occasion 
reads  like  a  fairy  tale. 

'  From  the  glittering  coronal  of  frozen  loveliness — meet 
diadem  for  the  Scandinavian  frost  giants — which  overhung 
the  concert  room  of  the  Palace,  to  the  tinted  fires  which 
glowed  in  the  heart  of  fountain,  flower,  and  sward,  the  eye 
was  intoxicated  with  beauty.  The  entertainment  court 
was  canopied  with  a  chandelier  of  the  most  exquisite 
design,  the  work  of  Messrs  Verity  &  Co.,  gathering  into 
itself  the  floral  magnificence  of  a  hundred  favoured  climes. 
Metal  and  coloured  glass  combined  in  the  reproduction  of 
nature's  softest  and  richest  hues,  and  a  tiny  spark,  con- 
cealed among  the  petals,  or  nestling  beneath  the  folded 
leaves,  brought  into  relief  each  delicate  curve  and  vein. 
Three  hundred  and  fifty  of  these  fairy  blossoms  were 
represented,  ranging  from  the  sunflower,  the  narcissus,  the 


90  ELECTRIC  LIGHT. 

tiger-lily,  and  the  orchid,  down  to  the  modest  pink,  the 
whole  enshrined  in  a  basket  of  hammered  brass.  Ninety- 
nine  Edison  lamps  in  three  circuits  were  employed,  the 
brass  stems  of  the  flowers  being  hollow,  so  as  to  admit  of 
the  passage  of  the  wires.' 

Mr  Edison  presented  a  miniature  model  of  this  chande- 
lier, or  electrolier,  to  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales. 
Upon  it  was  the  inscription :  '  A  souvenir  of  the  visit  of 
their  Royal  Highnesses  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales, 
to  the  Electrical  Exposition  of  the  Crystal  Palace,  1882; 
with  the  compliments  of  Thomas  Alva  Edison.'  Electricity, 
we  are  told,  was  stored  within  the  recesses  of  the  bouquet, 
so  as  to  be  instantaneously  brought  into  play  or  extin- 
guished. 

The  press  vehemently  expressed  its  admiration.  The 
Illustrated  London  News  commented  on  the  soft  delicious 
radiance  which  came  from  the  new  Edison  lamp,  saying 
that  its  soothing  influence  had  quite  neutralised  the  popular 
objection  to  electricity  for  indoor  illumination.  Finally,  it 
said,  the  Edison  exhibit  was  unique,  and  well  merited  the 
praise  bestowed  upon  it. 

'  The  palm  is  undoubtedly  carried  off  by  the  Edison 
show,  which  is  extremely  beautiful,'  said  another  peri- 
odical. 

1  Mr  Edison's  splendid  show  in  the  concert  room  and 
entertainment  hall  continues  to  attract  more  attention  than 
any  other,'  said  a  third  paper. 

At  other  exhibitions,  in  Munich,  Vienna,  Philadelphia, 
Paris,  and  Minneapolis,  the  beautiful,  steady,  and  mellow 
Edison  electric  light  met  with  the  same  admiration  and 
success.  And  in  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  1889,  where  nine 
thousand  feet  were  allotted  to  the  inventor,  that  space  was 
filled  to  overflowing  with  the  fruits  of  Edison's  inventive 


ELECTRIC  LIGHT.  Ql 

genius.  In  the  centre  of  all  was  an  immense  model  of  an 
incandescent  lamp,  forty  feet  high,  the  globe  of  which  was 
constructed  of  no  less  than  twenty  thousand  incandescent 
lamp  bulbs,  which  brilliantly  illuminated  the  entire  build- 
ing. An  enormous  dynamo  was  also  shown,  and  an 
allegorical  picture,  entitled,  '  Menlo  Park,  the  Birthplace 
of  the  Incandescent  Lamp.'  A  series  of  charts  was  also 
exhibited,  representing  the  most  important  buildings  in 
the  world  which  have  adopted  the  Edison  methods  of 
lighting. 

More  companies,  industries,  and  factories  for  the  work- 
ing of  the  Edison  light  forthwith  sprang  into  being,  and 
grew  in  strength  and  magnitude.  In  1882  the  European 
Company  was  organised,  plants  were  set  up  in  important 
transatlantic  centres,  and  the  Edison  London  Company 
was  formed.  Commercial  success  followed,  and  this  more 
especially  in  the  States,  where  the  Menlo  Park  Exposition 
of  electric  light  had  first  given  fame  to  the  new  venture, 
which  had  increased  more  and  more  as  time  revealed  its 
excellence. 

Edison  personally  superintended  the  extension  of  the 
factories.  The  Goerck  Street  shop  in  New  York  was  first 
established,  and  then  another  at  65  Fifth  Avenue,  which 
became  a  favourite  one  of  Edison  and  his  earlier  associates. 
A  smaller  lamp  manufactory  at  Menlo  Park  followed, 
together  with  establishments  first  begun  at  Brooklyn,  for 
promoting  underground  tubing ;  these  establishments  were 
of  much  importance  to  the  system,  and  were  incorporated 
under  the  name  of  the  Electric  Tube  Company.  The 
Edison  Company  for  Isolated  Lighting  was  launched  in 
1881,  and  in  1882  a  common  source  of  creative  energy  for 
the  isolated  plants  was  supplied  by  the  establishment  of 
the   Pearl   Street   Central   Station   at   New  York,    which 


$2  ELECTRIC   LIGHT. 

possessed  fifty  miles  of  conductors  and  2000  lamps.  A 
large  factory  at  Newark,  N.J.,  gave  rise  to  the  Edison 
Lamp  Company,  which  in  time  caused  the  place  to  become 
known  as  the  '  Lamp  Works  of  the  Edison  General  Electric 
Light  Company.'  At  the  present  day  this  is  a  large 
business  extending  to  25,000  lamps  a  day. 

In  1886  the  Edison  Electric  Light  Company  and  the 
Edison  Company  for  Isolated  Lighting  consolidated  under 
the  name  of  the  Edison  United  Manufacturing  Company. 
But  in  1889  a  still  more  complete  consolidation  of  the 
various  light  and  power  industries  was  effected  under  the 
name  of  the  Edison  General  Electric  Light  Company,  with 
a  capital  of  15,000,000  dollars,  and  an  annual  income  of 
almost  the  same  amount. 

Now,  for  the  first  time,  money  poured  into  Edison's 
purse,  and  he  knew  what  it  was  to  have  a  good  independ- 
ent capital  of  his  own.  No  longer  cramped  and  harassed 
by  want  of  means  to  further  his  costly  schemes,  Edison 
now  worked  as  hard  as  ever,  but  with  more  freedom,  at  his 
wonderful  inventions. 

Some  detractors  of  course  Edison  has  had.  Professor 
Barrett,  lecturing  in  1879,  said:  'Amongst  scientific  men 
a  very  unfavourable  opinion  of  Edison  exists,  from  the 
sensational  reports  which  have  come  to  us  from  America. 
But  we  must  remember  that  the  inventive  faculty  which  is 
so  largely  developed  in  the  United  States  seems  of  late  to 
have  extended  to  its  newspaper  reporters.  Thus  it  comes 
to  pass  that  some  persons  speak  of  Mr  Edison  as  if  he 
were  a  Davy,  a  Faraday,  a  Tyndall,  and  a  Roscoe  all  in 
one,  whilst  others  regard  him  as  almost  a  scientific  char- 
latan.' 

The  attempts  of  jealous  or  ambitious  people  to  divert  a 
little  of  his  success   resulted  in  tedious  lawsuits,  notably 


ELECTRIC    LIGHT.  93 

the  Sawyer-Mann  case,  and  the  Goebal  case,  which,  after 
occupying  much  time  and  entailing  heavy  costs,  were 
decided  in  favour  of  Edison  and  his  light. 

In  April  1892,  when  sending  Lord  Kelvin  the  record  of 
the  litigation  in  the  suits  to  protect  the  incandescent  lamp, 
Edison  said  in  his  accompanying  letter:  '  I  expect  that  the 
already  long  list  of  the  claimants  for  the  honour  of  making 
lighting  by  incandescence  a  practical  reality,  will  be  still 
further  increased  as  time  goes  by.5 

Lord  Kelvin,  in  his  reply,  expressed  the  sincere  hope 
that  the  results  of  the  litigation  'will  ultimately  be  all 
satisfactory  to  Mr  Edison,  to  whom  we  owe  so  much  for 
all  that  he  has  done  of  benefit  to  the  world,  not  only  in 
electricity,  but  in  other  large  departments  of  inventions.' 

The  inventor's  happy  disposition  has  prevented  the 
opposition  and  jealous  detraction  of  rivals  from  causing 
him  as  much  suffering  or  anxiety  as  it  otherwise  would. 
It  was  characteristic  of  him  that  he  should  pleasantly 
assert,  when  a  certain  Professor  Morton,  in  the  early  days 
of  his  incandescent  light,  had  been  lecturing  against  it, 
that,  when  it  was  perfected,  he  would  erect  a  statue  to 
this  raven  of  science,  and  frame  it  in  the  splendour  of  the 
new  lamps,  whilst  underneath  he  would  have  the  words 
inscribed,  'This  is  the  man  who  said  the  Edison  light 
would  never  work.' 


.94  EDISON    AS    A   WORKER   AND    EMPLOYER. 


CHAPTER     XV. 

EDISON    AS    A   WORKER   AND    EMPLOYER. 


O  you  have  regular  hours,  Mr  Edison?'  inquired 
an  interviewer,  Mr  Lenier,  of  him,  two  or  three 
years  ago. 

'  Oh,'  replied  the  great  man,  '  I  do  not  work  hard  now. 
I  come  to  the  laboratory  about  eight  o'clock  every  day, 
and  go  home  to  tea  at  six,  and  then  I  study,  or  work  on 
some  problem,  until  eleven,  which  is  my  hour  for  bed.' 

'  Fourteen  or  fifteen  hours  a  day  can  scarcely  be  called 
loafing,'  suggested  the  other. 

'Well,'  replied  the  great  inventor,  'for  fifteen  years  I 
have  worked,  on  an  average,  twenty  hours  a  day/ 

There  is  none  of  the  lean  and  hungry  look  of  the  over- 
worked student  about  him,  Mr  Lenier  tells  us.  His  face, 
though  strongly,  even  magnificently  chiselled,  is  almost 
boyish  in  its  smoothness ;  and  in  his  manner  there  is  that 
flavour  of  perfect  simplicity  and  cheery  goodwill  given  only 
to  the  very  great. 

'What  makes  you  work?'  asked  Mr  Lenier  of  him 
curiously.  'What  impels  you  to  this  constant,  tireless 
struggle?' adding,  'You  have  shown  that  you  care  com- 
paratively nothing  for  the  money  it  makes,  and  you  have 
no  particular  enthusiasm  in  the  attending  fame.' 

'  I  like  it,'  was  the  reply.  '  I  like  it :  I  don't  know  any 
other  reason.  You  know  some  people  like  to  collect 
stamps.     Anything  I  have  begun  is  always  on  my  mind, 


EDISON   AS    A   WORKER   AND    EMPLOYER.  95 

and  I  am  not  easy  while  away  from  it  until  it  is  finished. 
And  then  I  hate  it.' 

'Hate  it?'  inquired  the  other,  struck  by  his  emphatic 
tones. 

1  Yes,'  he  replied.  '  When  it  is  all  done,  and  is  a 
success,  I  can't  bear  the  sight  of  it.  I  haven't  used  a 
telephone  in  ten  years,  and  I  would  go  out  of  my  way 
any  day  to  miss  an  incandescent  light.' 

Then  the  great  man  grew  eloquent,  with  righteous  anger, 
about  the  treatment  which  the  inventor  only  too  often 
meets  with.  He  said  a  race  of  professional  sharks  had 
arisen  to  dispute,  with  absolute  disregard  of  facts,  priority 
of  claim  to  valuable  patents.  The  better  known  the 
patentee,  the  more  liable  they  were  to  swarm  about  with 
suborned  witnesses.  Mr  Edison  had  no  fault  to  find  with 
the  patent  law  in  the  matter,  but  condemned  strongly  the 
practice  of  the  United  States  in  issuing  injunctions  for- 
bidding an  inventor  to  use  his  discovery  until  the  case  was 
decided,  a  period  often  covering  years.  He  maintained 
that  this  worked  great  injustice  to  the  honest  parties  to 
a  suit,  and  that  there  was  no  protection  in  patents  at  all. 

Sometimes  Edison's  zeal  and  long  hours,  whilst  busy 
with  some  important  invention,  bore  rather  heavily  upon 
the  more  limited  endurance  of  his  assistants.  Hence,  a 
story  is  told  us,  by  the  Dicksons,  of  an  ingenuous 
youth,  who  thought  he  would  shorten  the  dreadfully  long 
working  hours  one  night  by  putting  the  clocks  on  a  little. 
Accordingly,  when  Edison  woke  up  after  a  doze  in  the 
intervals  of  work,  he  saw  by  the  clocks  that  it  was  four 
o'clock,  and  immediately  dismissed  his  tired  assistants. 
Upon  going  home,  however,  to  bed,  he  noticed  that  the 
theatres  were  just  pouring  forth  their  visitors.  It  was,  in 
fact,  precisely  eleven  o'clock.     Edison  burst  into  a  hearty 


g6  EDISON    AS    A   WORKER   AND    EMPLOYER. 

laugh,  and  took  the  whole  matter  in  the  pleasantest  way- 
imaginable. 

Mr  Johnson,  who  has  been  associated  with  Edison  in 
business  for  twenty  years,  says  that  Edison  is  genial  and 
even  frolicsome,  with  a  temperament  which  might  almost  be 
called  boyish.  '  In  the  whole  of  our  connection,'  he  says, 
1  and  notwithstanding  the  many  strains  on  his  temper,  and 
the  injustice  which  he  suffers  from  unscrupulous  business 
antagonists,  we  have  had  but  one  "difference."  That  was 
based  on  a  pure  misunderstanding,  and  has  long  since 
died  a  natural  death.  My  association  with  him  has  been 
of  the  greatest  profit  and  pleasure  to  me.  Our  active 
friendship  will  end  only  with  the  death  of  one  of  us, 
though  our  business  relations  have  ceased  in  the  course  of 
the  natural  ramification  of  the  electric  light  and  power 
industries,  with  which  I  became  more  intimately  identified 
than  did  his  other  laboratory  associates.' 

Whilst  busy  with  developing  machines  for  generating 
electrical  power,  Edison  established  himself  for  the  purpose 
at  Goerck  Street,  in  the  building  formerly  known  as  the 
Etna  Iron-works.  There,  with  a  chosen  band  of  followers, 
he  worked  hard  at  experimenting  on  the  dynamo. 

It  was  at  Goerck  Street  that  the  following  incidents 
occurred.  One  day  his  men  were  testing  a  new  type 
of  dynamo,  which  had  been  greatly  reduced  in  size,  and 
was  giving  more  light  than  was  anticipated.  Delighted 
with  the  unexpected  electrical  energy,  Edison  started  a 
series  of  tests  to  discover  how  high  the  dynamo  could  be 
run  without  flying  in  pieces  —  experimental  work  not 
without  danger  to  those  employed  upon  it. 

'Fire  up,  men  ;  let  her  go  !'  cried  Edison,  ordering  more 
steam,  even  when  the  limit  of  the  machine  had  been 
reached. 


EDISON    AS    A   WORKER   AND    EMPLOYER.  97 

The  men  stood  at  a  little  distance  from  the  dynamo, 
but  now  they  found  it  desirable  to  betake  themselves  to 
an  adjacent  large  and  solid  brick  building,  where  Edison 
was  awaiting  reports. 

Suddenly  came  a  deafening  noise.  The  main  steam- 
pipe  had  burst.  Nothing  worse,  however,  happened,  and 
Edison  was  satisfied  that  the  demonstration  was  scien- 
tifically complete. 

The  Dicksons  relate  another  amusing  story  of  the 
visit  of  Sitting  Bull  and  his  tribe  to  the  Goerck  Street 
works.  One  morning,  Edison  sent  word  that  they  were 
coming,  and  that  preparations  were  to  be  made  for  their 
visit.  At  the  appointed  time  they  accordingly  arrived,  on 
several  omnibuses  and  carriages.  Very  picturesque  they 
looked  bedizened  with  war-paint  and  other  grotesque 
adornments,  but  their  faces  were  very  grave  and  stolid. 
Solemnly  they  descended  from  the  vehicles  which  had 
brought  them,  and  strutted  through  the  establishment,  no 
look  of  surprise  upon  their  countenances,  and  no  word  or 
sign  escaping  their  lips. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  visit  of  the  solemn-faced  directors 
and  shareholders  to  Edison's  first  electric  railway-line  at 
Menlo  Park,  this  gravity  of  demeanour  on  the  part  of  his 
guests  tickled  Edison's  sense  of  humour,  and  caused  him 
to  play  a  practical  joke. 

Ordering  one  of  his  dynamos  to  be  stopped,  he  ran  a 
wire  heavily  insulated  with  cotton,  and  connected  it  by  both 
ends  to  the  generating  machine.  Then  he  got  the  Indians 
to  stand  close  to  the  wire,  which  ran  along  the  full  length 
of  the  main  shop,  and  looked  closely  at  their  faces  whilst 
the  metallic  thread  became  red  hot.  Not  the  slightest 
interest  was  shown  in  the  proceedings  by  the  Indians 
until  the  burning  cotton  rose  in  a  cloud,  filling  their  eyes 

G 


98  EDISON    AS    A    WORKER    AND    EMPLOYER. 

with  its  stinging  fumes.  Then  a  loud  'Ugh!'  broke  the 
silence,  and  the  strangers  began  to  rub  their  eyes. 

Edison  himself  got  some  burnt  cotton  in  his  eyes,  but, 
in  his  glee  at  the  success  of  his  experiment  he  did  not 
care  about  that. 

Although  sometimes,  in  the  exigencies  of  an  important 
crisis  in  his  experimental  work,  Edison  would  seem  to 
forget  his  assistants'  need  of  rest  and  food,  he  was  not  at 
other  times  unmindful  of  their  bodily  comfort  and  of  their 
need  of  recreation  after  protracted  and  arduous  labours. 

A  certain  brick-sloop  which  anchored  at  Woodbridge 
was  often  hired  by  him,  and,  after  supplying  her  with 
provisions,  fishing  tackle,  and  so  on,  he  would  take  his 
men  some  pleasant  excursion,  during  which  his  genial 
kindness  would  come  into  full  play. 

No  wonder  that  he  was  beloved  by  his  subordinates. 
He  dealt  in  no  scathing  rebukes,  nor  was  it  his  wont  to 
abruptly  dismiss  a  faulty  servant.  He  had  great  patience 
with  those  whose  ignorance  made  them  err. 

A  good  story  is  told  about  his  treatment  of  a  young 
assistant,  a  would-be  electrical  inventor,  who  was  possessed 
by  such  a  great  idea  of  his  own  importance  that  he  refused 
to  perform  some  rough  work,  which  required  doing,  when 
they  were  busy  with  an  important  experiment.  Edison 
quietly  and  with  great  courtesy  apologised  for  having 
suggested  to  him  such  a  thing  as  manual  work.  Then, 
rolling  up  his  sleeves,  he  proceeded  to  do  the  dirty  and 
somewhat  fatiguing  task  himself.  The  lesson  learned  then 
by  the  youth  never  required  repeating.  His  master's 
example  would  ever  rise  up  before  him  when  he  felt 
indisposed  to  do  what  some  would  call  menial  work. 

Perhaps  it  was  after  that  experience  that  for  a  long  time, 
as  Mr  Lenier  tells  us;  Edison  used  to  have  a  test  applied 


EDISON    AS   A   WORKER    AND    EMPLOYER.  99 

when  a  new  man  came  to  work  with  them  in  his  laboratory. 
He  was  told  that  he  would  be  required  to  sweep  the  floor 
in  the  morning — this  was.  of  course,  only  to  try  him.  But 
if  he  bridled  up  and  resented  it  as  an  insult,  Edison  and 
his  associates  knew  that  he  would  never  be  of  much  use  as 
an  electrician. 

Edison  will  not  allow  his  devoted  followers  to  be  *  sat 
upon'  by  outsiders,  but  ever  stands  up  for  them,  when 
they  get  into  difficulties.  Upon  one  occasion  one  of  Mr 
Edison's  assistants,  or  associates,  as  they  are  pleasantly 
termed,  was  called  on  to  give  the  bearings  of  some  intricate 
electrical  problem  before  a  formidable  board  of  inquiry. 
Perhaps  from  nervousness,  the  unfortunate  young  man 
made  several  inaccurate  statements.  These  were  pointed 
out  and  taken  exception  to  by  the  members  of  the  board, 
but  the  general  verdict  was  waived  because  Mr  Edison 
supported  his  protege. 

As  soon  as  the  room  was  cleared,  the  master  turned  to 
his  follower,  saying,  '  Now,  here  you  were  wrong  about 
that  affair.     I  saw  that  at  a  glance.' 

'You  did,  Mr  Edison!'  said  the  other  in  amazement. 
'  Then  why  did  you  endorse  me  ?' 

1  Because  I  wasn't  going  to  let  those  duffers  have  the 
satisfaction  of  crowing  over  you,  if  I  could  help  it,'  was  the 
kind  reply. 

All-night  toil  is  rather  exceptional  with  Edison  nowadays, 
but  years  ago  he  often  did  it.  At  that  time  Mr  Francis 
Lathrop  went  out  to  Menlo  Park  to  make  a  portrait  of 
him  for  a  popular  magazine.  The  inventor,  he  found,  had 
just  bought  an  organ,  that  playing  upon  it  might  relieve 
the  strain  of  intense  study  and  constant  experimenting. 
Having  taught  himself  to  play  upon  it,  he  would  run  out 
of  his  private  laboratory  into  the  main  shop  in  the  middle 


100  EDISON   AS   A   WORKER   AND    EMPLOYER. 

of  the  night,  hammer  out  one  or  two  tunes  on  the  organ 
with  almost  ferocious  vigour,  sit  a  while  for  the  artist  to 
draw  his  portrait — talking  gaily  as  he  did  so — and  then, 
with  the  slightest  possible  warning,  plunge  abruptly  back 
into  his  room.  He  was  at  that  time  intent  upon  making 
the  electric  light  perfect.  Wishing  to  know  what  were  the 
resources  of  the  earth  in  the  line  of  platinum,  he  sent  for 
every  book  he  could  obtain  which  bore  upon  that  point, 
and  had  the  volumes  all  strewn  about  him  on  the  floor,  or 
piled  up  near  the  scene  of  his  then  occupation,  many  of 
them  lying  open  at  the  page  where  he  had  been  reading 
last.  One  of  his  recreations,  said  Mr  Lathrop,  was  to 
fling  himself  down  among  these  tomes,  and  pore  over 
them  in  the  pursuit  of  some  especial  inquiry,  after  which 
he  would  go  back  refreshed  to  the  manual  part  of  his  task. 
The  mention  of  this  one  little  circumstance,  he  adds,  may 
help  to  show7  how  Edison  succeeds  in  combining  the 
different  branches  of  his  labour — practical  investigation 
and  research  by  means  of  books.  He  uses  one  as  a 
relief  from  the  other,  to  give  himself  recreation  and  dispel 
fatigue. 

*  Edison,'  says  Mr  Lathrop,  '  is  always  absolutely  himself. 
He  does  not  present  to  one's  observation  a  mixture  of 
superficial  manners  and  concealed  inner  man.  His  out- 
ward characteristics,  therefore,  are  insignificant  and  worth 
nothing.  He  has,  in  a  degree  which  is  literally  startling, 
the  power  of  self-concentration.  With  him  no  time  is 
wasted  on  formalities  and  conventions,  and  not  an  instant 
is  lost  in  passing  from  one  mood  or  subject  to  another. 
The  transition,  however,  is  made  with  the  whole  momentum 
of  his  mind.  He  is  capable  of  great  jollity  and  a  most 
charming  companionableness.  Yet,  although  he  may  at 
one  instant  be  wholly  absorbed  in  a  merry  chat  with  his 


EDISON   AS   A  WORKER   AND   EMPLOYER.  IOI 

friends,  laughing  at  their  drolleries,  and  cracking  jokes  of 
his  own,  in  the  very  next  instant  he  will  be  as  completely 
buried  in  some  abstruse  scientific  problem.' 

Perhaps  nothing  showed  this  sudden  complete  transition 
of  deep  interests  in  his  mind,  and  the  mental  abstraction  to 
which  it  gives  rise,  more  than  the  following  incident,  which 
is  told  us  of  his  first  marriage  in  the  early  days  at  Newark. 

A  friend  going  past  his  workshop  one  night  saw  a  light 
in  his  room,  and,  going  to  him,  found  that  he  was  dozing 
over  a  problem  which  there  was  some  difficulty  in  solving. 

'  Hullo,  Tom,'  cried  the  friend,  '  what  are  you  doing 
here  so  late  ?     Aren't  you  going  home  ?' 

'What  time  is  it?'  asked  Edison  sleepily,  rubbing  his 
eyes  and  stretching  himself. 

1  Midnight,  easy  enough.     Come  along.' 

'Is  that  so?'  replied  the  inventor.  'I  must  go  home 
then.     I  was  married  to-day.' 

We  have  seen,  too,  how  completely  he  forgot  money 
matters  once,  when  money  was  of  great  importance  to  him, 
by  allowing  his  mind  to  become  buried  in  the  complex 
question  of  quadruplex  telegraphy  whilst  waiting  to  pay 
his  taxes,  and  so  lost  the  sum  allowed  during  the  days  of 
grace,  because  he  was  unable  to  state  who  he  was,  and 
for  what  purpose  he  was  there. 

It  was  whilst  he  was  at  Menlo  Park,  and  the  public 
were  longing  to  lionise  him,  that  a  moulder  came  there 
from  Messrs  Fowler  &  Wells,  to  make  a  cast  of  his  head 
for  their  phrenological  collection. 

The  incident  was  one  which  cost  Edison  some  pain  and 
trouble.  It  took  place  in  the  upper  floor  of  the  laboratory. 
The  inventor  good-humouredly  sat  down  in  an  arm-chair 
with  a  towel  round  his  shoulders  as  though  he  were  about 
to  be  shaved.     The  moulder  having  oiled  his  face  and 


102  EDISON   AS   A   WORKER   AND    EMPLOYER. 

smeared  his  hair,  mixed  the  plaster  and  began  to  put  it  on 
the  back  of  his  head,  leaving  the  face  and  neck  uncovered. 
Pieces  of  tissue-paper  were  next  put  over  the  eyes  and 
patted  to  give  the  form,  then  little  rolls  of  paper  were 
placed  in  the  nostrils.  After  this  the  moulder  oiled  the 
edge  of  the  back  mould  and  began  to  approach  the  mouth. 
Later,  when  the  cast  was  finished,  it  showed  the  mouth 
twitched  to  one  side — the  effect  of  a  surprise  felt  when  the 
artist  grasped  his  hand  before  the  plaster  was  set. 


CHAPTER     XVI. 

THE   ORANGE    LABORATORY. 

]T  last  there  came  a  time  when  even  the  large 
premises  at  Menlo  Park  were  too  small  for  the 
numerous  demands  upon  them ;  therefore,  in  1886, 
Edison  removed  to  his  new  laboratory  at  Orange,  N.J.,  a 
huge  building  at  the  foot  of  the  Orange  Mountains. 

There,  four  smaller  buildings  are  grouped  near  the 
laboratory,  and  the  whole  is  surrounded  by  a  high  and 
thick  fence,  and  a  gate  which  is  closed  to  the  public,  with 
the  notice,  '  Mr  Edison,  in  justice  to  his  work,  is  compelled 
to  deny  absolutely  all  personal  interviews;'  and  again,  'No 
permits  can  be  issued  to  visitors  to  enter  these  premises.' 

An  amusing  story  is  told  us  of  how  Edison  himself  once 
fel1  a  victim  to  his  own  law  about  this  necessary  exclusion 
of  the  public.  One  day,  when  he  wished  to  enter  his 
domain,  a  new  and  zealous  gatekeeper  would  not  allow 
him  to  do  so  until  some  one  came  along  and  identified  him. 

Edison,  we  are  told,  is  really  one  of  the  most  accessible 
of  men,  and  it  is  with  reluctance  that  he  thus  allows  himself 


THE   ORANGE   LABORATORY.  IOJ 

to  be  protected  from  a  too  inquisitive  public.  But  at 
Menlo  Park  visitors  came  so  very  often  that  they  interfered 
with  work,  so  that  he,  at  length,  said  jokingly  that  he 
should  really  have  to  blow  up  some  one  to  frighten  them 
away. 

'  Mr  Edison  is  always  glad  to  see  a  visitor,'  said  one  of 
his  constant  associates,  '  except  when  he  is  hot  on  the  trail 
of  something  he  has  been  working  for,  and  then  it  is  as 
much  as  a  man's  head  is  worth  to  come  in  on  him.' 

The  first  room  a  visitor  enters  at  Mr  Edison's  Orange 
establishment  is  a  palatial  and  luxurious  library,  containing 
forty  thousand  works  of  reference.  This  apartment  looked 
somewhat  bare  and  dismal  at  first,  but,  on  Mr  Edison's 
forty-second  birthday,  the  laboratory  staff  and  workmen 
lovingly  fitted  it  up  with  soft  Smyrna  rugs,  pictures,  palms, 
and  flowers  as  a  birthday  present  for  him.  It  is  now  a 
delightful  and  most  handsome  place  for  study  and  mental 
recreation.  The  contents  of  the  book-shelves  give  one  an 
idea  of  the  breadth  of  thought  and  sympathy  of  the 
self-made  and  self-taught  man  of  science.  He  is  by  no 
means  only  a  scientific  specialist,  but  can  respond  and  talk 
intelligently  on  the  most  diverse  topics. 

From  the  library  the  storeroom,  or  stockroom,  is  entered, 
which  contains  the  most  diverse  and  miscellaneous  assort- 
ment of  material.  Just  as  Edison,  when  a  lad,  brought 
home  to  his  mother's  basement  all  kinds  of  rubbish,  in  the 
hope  that  they  might  come  in  useful  for  some  of  his 
experiments,  so  now,  as  a  man,  he  collects  everything,  no 
matter  what,  which  he  has  the  faintest  idea  of  turning  to 
account  in  any  way.  Here  there  are  unearthly  relics  of 
birds,  beasts,  plants,  and  crawling  things.  Skins  of  snakes 
and  fishes,  furs  of  fur-bearing  animals — some  very  rare — the 
skin   and   teeth   of  sharks   and   hippopotami,  rhinoceros 


104  THE   ORANGE   LABORATORY. 

horns,  fibres  of  strange  exotic  plants,  all  kinds  of  textile 
substances,  and  precious  stones. 

1  That,'  said  Mr  Edison,  pointing  to  a  globe  enclosing 
the  filament  of  the  incandescent  light,  '  never  would  work 
right,  no  matter  how  hard  we  tried,  till  the  fibre  of  a 
particular  kind  of  bamboo  was  put  in.'  The  phonograph, 
also,  was  only  perfected  after  the  value  of  the  hard  sapphire 
stone  was  discovered  for  several  of  its  parts — the  repro- 
ducing ball,  the  recording  knife,  amongst  others. 

From  the  storeroom  the  lower  machine  shop  is  entered, 
which  is  devoted  to  making  the  heavier  mechanism  of  the 
dynamos,  ore-milling  machines,  &c,  and  here  there  is  a 
noisy  clanking  and  throbbing,  as  the  great  metal  giants  are 
used.  On  one  side  are  huge  mining  drills,  on  another  an 
array  of  electric  motors,  in  the  centre  of  the  shop,  so  that 
the  power  may  be  sent  in  any  given  direction.  The 
men  working  here  are  encased  in  smuts  and  grime,  and 
powdered  with  shining  filaments  of  iron  or  steel.  Rough 
manual  labour  is  here  wielded  by  sturdy  frames,  and  with 
imperturbable  industry. 

In  the  dynamo  room  are  displayed  various  kinds  of  the 
electric  generators. 

An  elevator  takes  people  up  to  the  second  floor,  where 
are  to  be  found  the  lighter  and  more  delicate  machines, 
such  as  the  phonograph,  the  kinetograph,  the  kinetoscope, 
and  other  apparatus. 

The  glass-blowing  room  is  very  attractive.  There  the 
operator  wields  the  plastic  crystal,  moulds  the  fairy  spheres, 
and  sends  out  shining  threads.  On  this  floor,  too,  are  the 
rooms  devoted  to  the  development  of  ideas  which  as  yet 
are  barely  sketched. 

Edison  never  tries  to  keep  secret  his  inventions.  Any 
one  can  see  the  work  that  is  going  on ;  he  seems  to  have 


THE   ORANGE    LABORATORY.  10$ 

no  fear  of  any  workman  or  visitor  running  off  with  his 
ideas.  A  visitor  was  once  looking  over  one  of  his  numerous 
volumes  of  notes.  His  companion  suggested  that  he  had 
better  not  look  there,  it  might  be  private. 

'  Oh  no,  there  is  nothing  private  here,'  said  one  of  the 
men,  overhearing;  '  every  one  is  at  liberty  to  see  ajl  he  can, 
and  the  boss  (master)  will  tell  him  all  the  rest.  He  has 
taken  out  more  patents  than  any  other  man  in  America, 
but  he  never  made  an  attempt  in  his  life  to  keep  anything 
secret' 

Edison's  patience  with  inquirers  is  indeed  very  great. 
And  sometimes  he  has  very  ungrateful  experiences.  One 
day,  for  instance,  a  man  was  looking  over  his  inventions 
who  wanted  to  know  all  about  the  telephone. 

Edison  explained  it  in  every  particular,  and  received  the 
usual  answers ;  the  visitor  saying,  *  Yes,  I  comprehend 
perfectly;  simple  enough;'  and  so  on,  until  there  was 
nothing  left  to  tell  him. 

'  Then,'  said  Edison,  when  relating  the  occurrence,  '  you 
can  imagine  how  I  felt  when  he  said,  "  Yes,  Mr  Edison,  I 
understand  it  all,  except  how  the  sound  gets  out  again." 
I  thought  he  had  understood  it,  and  he  hadn't.  I  gave 
him  up.' 

A  very  powerful  impression  is  made  by  Edison  when  he 
is  seen  at  work,  with  his  fine  gray  eyes,  dark  hair  inclined 
to  gray,  and  his  robust  though  not  stout  figure,  in  his 
roomy  but  somewhat  topsy-turvy  laboratory,  directing  his 
assistants,  who  follow  his  directions  with  almost  reverence. 

Mr  Johnson  tells  us  that  'he  is  frank  and  open  to  a 
degree,  and  despite  many  a  sad  experience,  as  well  as 
oft-repeated  expressions  of  cynicism  under  the  sense  of 
injustice,  he  is  always  ready  with  sympathy  and  an  open 
hand.     When  he  feels  himself  injured,  he  is  bitter  for  a 


Io6  THE   ORANGE   LABORATORY. 

time,  but  this  passes  away,  unless  fed  by  the  active  hostility 
of  an  opponent.  He  is  extremely  sensitive  to  criticism  of 
his  motives,  and  is  even  too  apt  to  interpret  a  light  remark 
to  mean  a  great  disparagement.  When  he  is  robbed  of 
money  he  will  easily  forget  it,  but  if  attainted  in  any  moral 
sense  he  becomes  relentless.' 

We  are  told  that  the  keynote  of  his  work  is  commercial 
utility.  He  asks  himself,  when  pondering  over  some  new 
idea  that  his  wonderful  inventive  genius  has  evolved,  '  Will 
this  be  valuable  from  the  industrial  point  of  view  ?  Will  it 
do  some  important  thing  better  than  existing  methods  ? ' 
And  if  he  finds  it  will,  then  the  next  question  for  him  is, 
•'  Can  I  carry  it  out  ? '  Not  so  much  is  he  one  in  search  of 
truth,  as  a  mighty  engine  for  the  utilising  and  application 
of  scientific  truths.  He  is  the  greatest  inventor  of  his 
race. 

We  cannot  expect  a  man  who  has  for  years  worked 
twenty  hours  a  day  to  care  for  the  conventionalisms  of 
society,  and  we  have  seen  that  Edison,  although  genial  and 
delightful  as  a  friend,  shuns  rather  than  courts  the  tendency 
of  the  world  to  lionise  him.  He  is  a  brilliant  conversation- 
alist, so  society  loses  much  in  losing  him,  but  his  work 
and  the  benefit  of  mankind  gain  by  his  strict  adherence  to 
it.  He  has  often  been  heard,  we  are  told,  to  express 
contempt  for  an  inventor  who,  having  produced  a  single 
invention,  makes  a  tour  of  society,  to  receive  its  plaudits, 
and  finding  the  life  so  agreeable,  pursues  it  permanently, 
to  the  destruction  of  his  further  ambition. 

'  I  am  glad  to  see  that  Bradstreet  rates  your  credit  at 
three  million  dollars'  (£616,016),  some  one  remarked  to 
him  one  day. 

1  It  did  not  come  from  my  inventions,'  he  said  quickly. 
*  I  never  made  money  as  a  professional  inventor.     What 


THE   ORANGE   LABORATORY.  I07 

property  I  own  has  been  accumulated  since  I  began  to  do 
business,  and  manufacture  the  machines  in  my  own  shop. 
That  is  the  only  hope  of  the  inventor.  He  will  starve  if 
he  depends  upon  his  patents.' 

In  fact  he  has  been  so  robbed  by  patent  agents  and 
unscrupulous  lawyers,  that  it  is  almost  to  be  wondered  at 
that  he  has  still  faith  in  mankind. 

Leaving  Edison  in  his  laboratory,  perhaps,  if  it  is  the 
hour  of  noon,  sitting  with  his  luncheon  basket  on  his  knee; 
or,  if  he  has  been  up  some  nights,  dropping  into  a  doze 
as  he  sits  on  a  bench  amongst  his  men;  or  it  may  be 
turning  anxiously  to  overlook  some  important  endeavour 
on  the  part  of  an  associate,  we  will  pass  on  to  the  other 
departments. 

A  very  interesting  one  is  the  lamp  test-room,  on  the  top 
floor,  where  there  are  many  electric  lamps  all  alight,  that 
they  may  be  watched  and  studied,  with  a  view  to  correcting 
every  conceivable  defect  before  they  are  handed  over  to 
the  public.  Very  brilliant  is  the  light  given  by  these 
shining  bulbs ;  but  sometimes,  as  one  looks  on,  a  sort  of 
shiver  will  run  through  the  illumination,  and  by  the  bursting 
of  one,  the  looker-on  is  powdered  with  shining  fragments. 
Very  necessary,  therefore,  is  this  strict  examination  before 
they  are  given  over  to  the  public. 

Then  there  is  a  hall  which  is  devoted  to  the  exhibition 
of  the  several  inventions  of  Edison,  and  one  could  linger 
here  for  long,  studying  the  various  products  of  his  brain 
and  accumulative  industry.  The  collection,  however,  is 
not  so  complete  as  it  was  before  many  of  the  machines 
were  removed  to  the  Paris  Exhibition,  and  many  of  the 
inventions  are  still  unknown  to  fame. 

The  lecture  hall  and  the  out-buildings  next  claim  atten- 
tion.    In  the  chemical  room  Edison  may  often  be  found, 


108  THE   ORANGE   LABORATORY. 

draped  in  an  unsightly  toga,  which,  originally  brown,  is 
now  stained  magenta,  green,  and  yellow,  the  result  of  many 
experiments.  Surely  he  has  borne  a  charmed  life  in  the 
past,  or  some  of  the  mighty  powers  with  which  he  deals 
might  have  done  worse  for  him  than  disfigure  his  toga. 

Outside  there  are  the  galvanometer  department — con- 
taining a  vast  collection  of  valuable  electrical  instruments, 
galvanometers,  magnetometers,  cathetometers,  and  so  on — 
the  ore-milling  experiment-room,  and  the  supplementary 
sheds ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  large  and  unique  photographic 
rooms,  in  which  was  evolved  one  of  Edison's  latest  wonders, 
the  kinetoscope, 


CHAPTER     XVII. 

THE    KINETOSCOPE   AND    KINETOGRAPH. 

N  the  year  1887,'  says  Mr  Edison,  '  the_idea 
occurred  to  me  that  it  would  be  possible  to 
devise  an  instrument  which  should  do  tor  the 
eye  what  the  phonograph  does  for  the  ear,  and  that,  by 
a  combination  of  the  two,  all  motion  and  sound  could  be 
recorded  and  reproduced  simultaneously. 

The  germ  of  the  idea  came  from  the  little  toy  called  the 
zoetrope  (wheel  of  life),  and,  in  working  upon  it,  Mr  Edison 
was  but  carrying  out  what  Muybridge,  Marie,  and  others 
had  begun. 

So  successful  has  been  the  result  of  the  countless  experi- 
ments Edison  has  made,  that  the  kinetoscope,  as  the  device 
is  called,  is  now  an  accomplished  fact. 

The  kinetoscope  is  now  on  view  in  London,  and  of  it 
the    Times   says :  *  This   instrument   is  to   the   eye   what 


i  /•; 


THE   KINETOSCOPE   AND    KINETOGRAPH.  109 

Edison's  phonograph  is  to  the  ear,  in  that  it  reproduces 
living  movements  of  the  most  complex  and  rapid  character. 
To  clearly  understand  the  effect,  it  is  necessary  to  explain 
the  cause,  but  to  appreciate  the  result — the  working  of  the 
invention — it  must  be  witnessed.  The  moving  and  appar- 
ently living  photographs  in  the  kinetoscope  are  produced  *: 
in  the  following  manner:  Mr  Edison  has  a  stage  upon 
which  the  performances  he  produces  are  enacted.  These 
performances  are  recorded  by  taking  a  series  of_forty-three 
photographs  in  rapid  succession^  the  time  occupied  in 
taking  them  being  one  second  only.  Thus  every  progressive 
phase  of  every  single  action  is  secured,  and  the  photographs 
are  successfully  reproduced  on  a  film  of  celluloid  the 
length  required  for  a  given  scene.  When  this  film  is  passed 
before  the  eye  at  the  same  rate  of  speed  as  that  at  which 
the  photographs  were  taken,  the  photographically  disjointed 
parts  ofajgiyen  action  are  united  in  one  complete  whole. 
Thus,  supposing  a  person  to  be  photographed  taTung~oTF 
his  coat,  as  is  done  in  one  case,  the  successive  views 
representing  the  phase  of  action  at  every  forty-third  part  of 
a  second  are  joined  up,  and  the  complete  operation  of 
taking  off  the  coat  is  presented  to  the  eye  as  it  would 
appear  in  reality.  In  other  words,  the  kinetoscope  is  a 
perfect  reproduction  of  living  action  without  sound.  .  .  . 
One  scene  represents  a  blacksmith's  shop  in  full  operation, 
with  three  men  hammering  iron  upon  an  anvil,  who  stop  in 
their  work  to  take  a  drink.  Each  drinks  in  turn,  and 
passes  the  pot  of  beer  to  the  other.  The  smoke  from  the 
forge  is  seen  to  rise  most  perfectly.  In  another  view,  a 
Spanish  dancer  is  shown  going  through  her  graceful  evolu- 
tions, as  is  also  Annabella  in  her  serpentine  dance.' 

As  for  the  kinetograph,  it  bears  the  same  relation  to  the 
kinetoscope  as  the  recording  diaphragm  of  the  phonograph 


y 


IIO  THE    KINETOSCOPE   AND    KINETOGRAPH. 

does  to  the  reproducing  diaphragm.  The  kinetograph  is 
in  part  a  photographic  camera,  so  constructed  with  attach- 
ments and  devices  that  it  records  forty-six  distinct  and 
separate  views  of  moving  objects,  or  scenes,  during  each 
second  of  time.  These  photographs  are  recorded  on  a 
long  film  which  is  finished  substantially  as  all  photographs 
are  finished,  and  is  thus  prepared  for  reproduction  and 
exhibition  by  means  of  the  kinetoscope.  fThe  kinetoscope 
is  in  the  shape  of  a  handsome  hardwood  cabinet,  about  the 
size  of  a  phonograph  cabinet,  and  contains  a  mechanical 
v  .  -  device,  operated  by  electricity,  which  is  so  constructed  as 
'  to  run  the  films  (containing  the  views  photographed  by  the 
kinetograph)  past  a  given  point,  at  a  speed  of  about 
forty-six  every  second  of  time.  The  films  pass  over  a 
series  of  rollers,  which  keep  them  steady  and  secure 
accurate  results.  On  the  top  of  the  cabinet  is  a  small 
window  covered  with  clear  glass,  under  which  is  a  magni- 
fying lens.  If  we  look  through  this  window,  the  film  passes 
before  our  eyes  with  such  rapidity  that  we  see  one  con- 
tinuous view,  with  all  the  characters  moving  and  acting 
upon  it.  cT^ 

Mr  Edison  says  :  r  I  believe  that  in  coming  years,  by  my 
,/^own  work  and  that  of  Dickson,  Muybridge,  Marie,  and 
others  who  will  doubtless  enter  the  field,  a  grand  opera 
can  be  given  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  at  New 
York  without  any  material  change  from  the  original,  and^ 
with  artists  and  musicians  long  dead.' 

And  when  a  picture  of  NiagafaTalls,  for  instance,  is 
put  before  us,  the  noise  of  the  waters  may  also  be  conveyed 
to  our  ears  by  the  phonograph ;  and,  in  the  same  manner, 
the  gestures  and  intonation  of  some  of  our  public  speakers 
may  thus  be  given. 

'We  are  progressing,   progressing,'   said   Edison,  when 


THE    KINETOSCOPE    AND    KINETOGRAPH.  Ill 

visited  by  an  interviewer  intent  upon  learning  more  about 
the  wonderful  kinetograph  from  the  great  electrician  him- 
self, who  is  still  at  work  upon  it,  with  a  view  to  further 
improvements.  'The  object  of  the  machine  is  to  afford 
the  spectator  two  inventions  in  one — that  is,  two  senses  £ 
are  simultaneously  appealed  to-Sugpose,  we  will  say,  an 
opera  is  to  be  reproduced.  [  The  phonograph  already 
repeats  the  sound;  the  kinetoscope  affords  a  view  of 
the  movements.  Now,  however,  we  wish  to  combine  the 
two,  and  combine  them  far  more  effectively  than  ever  their 
distinct  elements  have  heretofore  been  rendered  by  separate 
instruments.  Thus,  if  one  wishes  to  hear  and  see  the 
concert,  or  the  opera,  it  would  only  be  necessary  to  sit 
down  jatjiome,  look  upon  a  screen,  and  see  the  perform- 
ance reproduced  exactly  in  every  movement,  and  at  the 
sarne~tim_e  the  voices  of  the  players  and  singers,  the  music 
of  the  orchestra,  the  various  sounds  that  accompany  a 
performance  of  this  sort,  will  be  reproduced  exactly.  The 
end  attained  is  a  perfect  illusion.  One  really  hears  and 
sees  the  play  if  the  conditions  precedent  to  the  suitable 
impressions  upon  eye  and  ear  are  obtained.' 

'  Can  ordinary  sights  and  scenes,  the  Pope  in  the  Vati- 
can, or  a  speech  at  a  mass  meeting,  be  as  effectively 
handled?' 

'  Far  more  easily,'  replied  the  great  electrician  ;  '  that  is 
the  least  difficult  part  of  the  problem.  Even  now  the 
spectator  could  be  treated  to  a  perfect  reproduction  of 
Gladstone  making  a  speech  to  the  House  of  Commons. 
This  would  be  shown  life  size,  and  so  far  as  the  spectator 
is  concerned  would  be  the  real  scene.  For  every  word, 
every  gesture  of  the  grand  old  man,  the  gestures  of  each 
spectator,  and  the  sounds  made  on  the  occasion,  would  be 
reproduced  exactly.     And  of  course  two  hundred  years 


112  THE    KINETOSCOPE    AND    KINETOGRAPH. 

hence  the  same  scene  could  be  thrown  up  at  will — a  new 
wavof  recording  history,  yjm-see^-- 

~""Thejournalist  asked  if  the  mechanism  of  such  a  machine 
would  not  be  very  complicated. 

'Not  more  so  than  that  of  the  kinetoscope  and  the 
phonograph,'  was  the  reply,  '  and  the  difficulty  now  in  the 
way  is  the  adjustment  of  the  photographic  apparatus  in 
minute  fractions  of  a  second.  Certain  flashes  of  motion 
are  caught  in  ten  forty-ninths  of  a  second.  But  in  preserv- 
ing them,  and  in  their  reproduction,  one  or  two  obstacles 
are  met  writh.  The  negative  itself  is  very  small — not 
much  larger  than  your  thumb  nail.  In  reproducing  these 
postures  and  movements,  great  care  is  necessary  in  main- 
taining proportions.  To  throw  upon  a  screen  a  series 
of  movements,  each  taking  up  an  interval  of  time  not 
longer,  perhaps,  than  a  fifth  part  of  ten  forty-ninths  of  a 
second,  and  at  the  same  time  to  ensure  fidelity,  is  the 
problem.  As  it  is,  there  are  occasional  distortions.  If 
a  movement  in  the  reproduction  be  not,  so  to  speak, 
run  out  consecutively — that  is,  if,  looked  upon  as  a  change 
of  posture,  it  be  not  accurately  photographed,  although  it 
occupied  but  the  two-hundredth  part  of  a  second — the 
effect  will  be  distorted.  Hence  the  extreme  nicety  required 
in  the  mechanism.' 

After  a  pause :  '  Perhaps  by  to-morrow,'  continued  Mr 
Edison,  '  we  may  perfect  the  machinery.  Perhaps  we  shall 
have  to  work  another  year  upon  it.  In  truth,  it  is  a  simple 
matter.  It  consists  merely  in  adjusting  thoroughly  under- 
stood principles  to  a  new  contrivance  which  is  made  up 
of  old  contrivances.  Were  it  not  that  we  have  such 
infinitely  small  sections  of  time  to  deal  with,  there  would 
be  no  difficulty  at  all.  But,  as  I  have  told  you,  we  know 
how  to  overcome  the  difficulty.     We  simply  lack  practice.' 


THE    KINETOSCOPE   AND    KINETOGRAPH.  113 

A  little  more   discussion   about   details  followed,   and  (^^  Cj* 
then   Edison    said  :   M   have  ^o^doubt  whatever  of  the 
outcome.     Before  many  years  we  will  have  grand  opera   7 
in  every  little  village  at  ten  cents  a  head.     And  the  very 
highest  grand  opera ;  you  will  see  and  hear  Patti  in  yourM'v<J\< 
own  parlour.     She  will  be  heard  a  hundred  years  after  her 
death.     The  President's  inauguration  can  be  treated  in  the 
same  way.     Pope  Leo  and  his  cardinals  may  be  seen  and 
heard  for  a  hundred  years  to  come.' 

'What  a  way  to  write  history  !'  he  continued  enthusiasti- 
cally. '  How  much  more  effectively  one  could  convey  to 
future  generations  an  idea  of  the  President  than  words  and 
writing  could !  In  fact,  written  records  would  cease  to 
have  their  historical  importance.  Yet,'  he  added,  '  these 
things  are  not  so  wonderful  as  they  seem.' 


CHAPTER     XVIII. 

ORE-MILLING,    ETC. 


LMOST  two  years  ago,  in  the  pages  of  Macluris 
Magazine,  Mr  E.  J.  Edwards  gave  a  very  in- 
teresting account  of  the  problems  which  Mr 
Edison  was  then  trying  to  solve,  saying  that  if  he  succeeded 
he  would  revolutionise  the  iron  and  coal  trade.  This 
writer  says :  Mr  Edison's  most  important  campaign, 
according  to  his  own  account,  upon  which  he  has  been 
engaged  for  several  years,  is  the  invention  of  an  ore- 
concentrator  for  cheapening  the  process  of  extracting 
iron  from  earth  and  rock.  Of  ten  important  details 
necessary  for  success,  he  has  mastered  eight.  In  his  own 
words,  'When   the   machinery   is   done   as    I    expect   to 

H 


114  ORE-MILLING,    ETC. 

develop  it,  it  will  be  capable  of  handling  twenty  thousand 
tons  of  ore  a  day,  with  two  shifts  of  men,  five  in  a  shift. 
That  is  to  say,  ten  workmen,  working  twenty  hours  a  day 
in  the  aggregate,  will  be  able  to  take  this  ore,  crush  it, 
reduce  the  iron  to  cement-like  proportions,  extract  it  from 
the  rock  and  earth,  and  make  it  into  bricklets  of  pure  iron, 
and  do  it  so  cheaply  that  it  will  command  the  market  for 
magnetic  iron.' 

And  after  this  iron-concentrator  is  finished,  Mr  Edison 
said,  '  I  shall  turn  my  attention  to  one  of  the  greatest 
problems  that  I  have  ever  thought  of  solving,  and  that  is, 
the  direct  control  of  the  energy  which  is  stored  up  in  coal, 
so  that  it  may  be  employed  without  waste,  and  at  a  very 
small  margin  of  cost.  Ninety  per  cent,  of  the  energy  that 
exists  in  coal  is  now  lost  in  converting  it  into  power.  It 
goes  off  in  heat  through  the  chimneys  of  boiler-rooms. 
You  perceive  it  when  you  step  into  a  room  where  there  is  a 
furnace  and  boiler ;  it  is  also  greatly  wasted  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  latent  heat  which  is  created  by  the  change 
from  water  to  steam.  Now  this  is  an  awful  waste,  and 
even  a  child  can  see  that,  if  the  waste  can  be  saved,  it 
will  result  in  vastly  cheapening  the  cost  of  everything 
which  is  manufactured  by  electric  or  steam  power.  In 
fact,  it  will  vastly  cheapen  the  cost  of  all  the  necessaries 
and  luxuries  of  life,  and  I  suppose  the  results  would  be  of 
mightier  influence  upon  civilisation  than  the  development 
of  the  steam-engine  and  electricity  have  been.' 

Then  he  went  on  to  say  that,  if  this  waste  were  saved, 
'  it  would  enable  an  ocean  steamship  of  twenty  thousand 
horse-power  to  cross  the  ocean  faster  than  any  of  the  crack 
vessels  now  do,  and  require  the  burning  of  only  two 
hundred  and  fifty  tons  of  coal  instead  of  three  thousand, 
which  are  now  required ;  so  that,  of  course,  the  charges  for 


ORE-MILLING,    ETC.  115 

freight  and  passenger  fares  would  be  greatly  reduced.  It 
would  enormously  lessen  the  cost  of  manufacturing  and  of 
traffic.  It  would  develop  the  electric  current  directly 
from  coal,  so  that  the  cost  of  steam-engines  and  boilers 
would  be  eliminated.  I  have  thought  of  this  problem  very 
much.  The  coal  would  be  put  into  a  receptacle,  the 
agencies  then  applied  would  develop  its  energy  and  save 
it  all,  and  through  this  energy  electric  power  of  any  kind 
desired  could  be  furnished.  Yes,  it  can  be  done ;  I  am 
sure  of  that.  Some  of  the  details  I  have  already  mastered, 
I  think  ;  at  least,  I  am  sure  that  I  go  the  way  to  master 
them.  I  believe  that  I  shall  make  this  my  next  campaign. 
It  may  be  years  before  it  is  finished,  and  it  may  not  be  a 
very  long  time.' 

Another  idea  Edison  had  in  his  head  at  that  time  was 
marine  signalling. 

V  '  I  think  it  quite  likely,'  he  said,  '  that  I  may  try  to 
develop  a  plan  for  marine  signalling.  I  have  the  idea 
already  pretty  well  formulated  in  my  own  mind.  I  should 
use  the  well-known  principle  that  water  is  a  more  perfect 
medium  for  carrying  vibrations  than  air,  and  should  develop 
instruments  which  may  be  carried  upon  sea-going  vessels, 
by  which  they  can  transmit  or  receive,  through  an  inter- 
national code  of  signals,  reports  within  a  radius  of,  say,  ten 
miles.' 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  already,  in  the  year  1895, 
two  special  types  of  Edison's  ore-milling  machines  are 
being  used  at  the  Ogden,  N.J.,  mines.  The  machine  is 
very  successful,  and  is  endowed  with  great  capacity.  It  is 
a  sight  to  look  at  five  or  six  of  the  monster  magnets 
extracting  the  metal.  The  upper  hoppers  of  the  machine, 
when  filled  with  the  ore,  are  opened  below,  and  a  perfect 
Niagara  of  particles,  half  an  inch  wide  and  thirty  feet  in 


Il6  ORE-MILLING,    ETC. 

length,  is  allowed  to  rush  past  the  magnets  without  touching 
them.  As  it  rushes  down,  a  large  proportion  of  the  ore, 
being  magnetic,  is  drawn  inward,  changing  the  trajectory 
and  showing  two  distinct  streams,  the  destination  of  each 
of  which  is  secured  by  separate  partition  boards.  The 
clouds  of  dust  are  whirled  away  to  specially  constructed 
dust  separators,  which  extract  the  float  iron.  The  next 
process  is  to  recrush  the  magnetic  part  which  was  drawn 
into  the  inner  receptacle,  by  passing  it  through  a  series  of 
rolls,  and  bringing  it  down  to  the  semblance  of  coarse- 
grained gunpowder.  This  rough  powder  is  then  fed  against 
the  second  type  of  magnetic  ore-separator,  or  refining 
machine,  inclined  rows  of  magnets  fixed  firmly  at  a  certain 
angle,  whilst  a  swift  travelling  belt,  eight  feet  wide  and  over 
thirty  long,  passes  over  the  face  of  these  magnets,  tumbling 
and  dashing  about  the  mass  of  particles  being  thus  cleansed, 
until  it  reaches  the  last  magnet  on  the  upper  row,  where 
what  is  left  is  caught  up  in  buckets  and  thrown  into  a 
proper  receptacle.  Five  thousand  tons  of  crude  ore  are 
thus  crushed  and  magnetically  concentrated  every  day  at 
the  Ogden  mines. 

A  correspondent  of  one  of  the  leading  Montreal  papers 
thus  graphically  describes  his  visit  to  Edison  at  his  works 
in  New  Jersey.  A  visit  to  Thomas  A.  Edison,  he  says, 
is  suggestive  of  a  pilgrimage  to  the  haunts  of  some 
medieval  wizard.  The  greatest  inventor  that  ever  lived 
has  established  himself  in  a  dell  hidden  amongst  verdant 
mountains  in  New  Jersey  wilds.  Then  he  goes  on  to  say 
the  neighbourhood  has  no  inhabitants  except  the  two 
hundred  men  whom  the  Wizard  employs.  A  somewhat 
shaky  railroad,  over  which  run  trains,  with  wheezy  cars 
meandering  this  way  and  that  according  as  the  wind 
blows,  leads  to  the  works  at  the  old  deserted  mine  once 


ORE-MILLING,    ETC.  117 

known  as  Ogden,  but  now  called  after  its  owner,  Edison. 
There  are  buildings  all  over  Edison,  great  buildings  which 
move  about  when  a  button  is  pressed.  Indeed,  we  are 
told,  the  people  at  Edison  seldom  do  anything  without 
pressing  a  button. 

No  one  seems  to  pay  much  attention  to  a  visitor  at 
Edison.  Only  sometimes  a  friendly  warning  is  uttered, 
as,  for  instance,  when  a  grimy  unkempt  worker  observed 
calmly  to  the  journalist,  '  If  you  stay  there  another  minute, 
you  will  be  broken  into  small  pieces  and  carried  under- 
ground.' 

'But  can  I  see  Mr  Edison?'  persisted  the  visitor, 
preparing  to  move  on. 

1 1  don't  know,'  is  the  careless  reply.  '  The  old  man  's 
around  somewhere.     Go  to  that  red  building.' 

Accordingly  the  visitor  set  off  towards  it,  but  only  to 
find,  to  his  chagrin,  that,  as  he  approached,  it  receded, 
stopping  in  the  most  tantalising  way  from  time  to 
time  when  he  stopped,  and  again  advancing  as  he  drew 
near. 

At  last,  however,  to  his  satisfaction,  it  moved  towards 
him,  and  then  he  found  that  it  was  an  office,  and,  upon 
his  pressing  a  button,  he  was  informed  where  Mr  Edison 
was,  and  that  he  would  be  along  presently. 

Whilst  waiting  for  him,  the  journalist  watched  the 
process  of  '  breaking  up  mountains.'  It  begins,  of  course, 
by  a  button  being  pressed.  Thereupon  an  immense 
boulder  is  detached  from  the  rock,  carried  on  a  movable 
hod  as  big  as  a  barn,  dropped  upon  a  pair  of  huge  iron 
wheels,  and  smashed  into  cobble-stones. 

These  cobbles  whirl  up  in  the  air  into  huge  troughs 
or  trays  and  come  down  dust,  when  the  grains  of  iron 
contained  in  them  are  pitched  out  by  magnets.     A  three- 


Il8  ORE-MILLING,    ETC. 

ton  boulder  is  broken  up  into  fine  iron  in  three  minutes, 
the  refuse  going  into  the  dust-hole. 

At  last  Edison  appeared.  He  was  toil-stained,  grimy, 
dusty,  and  dressed  like  a  navvy.  But  his  face,  says  the 
interviewer,  was  that  of  a  bright,  blue-eyed  youth,  beauti- 
fully blue-eyed  and  smiling.  It  was  not  until  he  took  off 
his  old  dust-covered  hat  that  his  gray  hair  showed  he  was 
no  longer  young.  Scarcely  a  wrinkle  was  to  be  seen  on 
his  face. 

After  discussing  the  kinetograph  with  his  visitor,  the 
great  inventor  said :  '  It  appears  to  me  that  the  people 
generally  are  not  keeping  pace  with  scientific  progress. 
What  do  you  think  of  the  idea  of  vaccinating  land  ?  That 
experiment,  I  see,  has  actually  been  made  with  success. 
The  object  of  this  success  is  to  improve  the  quality  of 
the  soil.  The  law  of  diminishing  returns,  so  long  an 
important  factor  in  political  economy,  is  thus  overcome. 
To  explain  the  method  employed,  so  as  to  be  comprehen- 
sible to  the  popular  mind,  is  not  easy.  You  see  certain 
roots  of  plants  which  flourish  in  inferior  soils  have  been 
ascertained  to  nourish  a  parasite.  These  parasites  afford 
the  plant,  through  their  organic  functions,  strength  and 
vitality.  In  return  the  parasites  are  fed  and  sustained  by 
certain  properties  of  the  root.  One  supports  the  other, 
and  the  two  have  a  decided  effect  upon  the  soil  in  which 
they  grow.  Now  this  process  of  nature  has  been  success- 
fully applied  by  science.  What  we  may  call  an  agri- 
cultural miss  is  obtained,  and  the  'impoverished  soil  into 
which  it  is  introduced  is  almost  at  once  bettered.  The 
process  is  permanently  fertilising,  and  cannot  fail  to  effect 
in  time  a  revolution  in  farming.' 

Here  a  button  was  pressed  somewhere  in  the  remote 
regions,  and  Mr  Edison  hastened  away,  leaving  his  visitor 


ORE-MILLING,    ETC.  119 

to  examine  the  '  Plant,'  as  he  calls  the  works  at  Edison, 
which  are  being  enlarged  from  day  to  day.  It  contains 
the  only  stone-breaker  in  the  world  of  its  extraordinary 
kind.  It  will  reduce  a  mountain  of  ordinary  size  to  dust 
in  one  day.  There  are  telephones  everywhere,  and 
phonographs  for  making  memoranda  connected  with  the 
desks.  There  are  no  houses,  no  candles  or  lanterns. 
Labour  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  '  A  day's  toil  consists 
largely  in  pressing  a  series  of  buttons.  And  they  never 
think  this  extraordinary  in  the  queer  place.  Even  the 
'prentice  boys  are  very  scientific.  They  release  the  giant 
forces  of  nature,  and  hold  them  in  check  again.  Edison 
is  the  Nimrod  of  this  electrical  game  reserve,  with  his 
pack  running  and  gamboling  all  about  him.' 

Having  accomplished  so  much,  Edison  is  still  endeavour- 
ing to  achieve  yet  greater  things.  Mr  Lenier  tells  us,  as 
did  Mr  Edwards,  that  he  is  working  at  a  still  harder  prob- 
lem— so  it  seems  to  me — than  any  he  has  yet  solved.  It 
is  the  direct  production  of  electricity  from  oxygen  and  coal 
(carbon).  At  present  we  burn  coal  to  obtain  steam,  which 
is  transmuted  into  mechanical  energy,  and  thence  into  elec- 
tricity. Under  the  very  best  conditions,  before  the  energy 
of  the  coal  reaches  the  dynamo,  six-sevenths  of  its  power 
are  lost.  If  a  way  is  found  to  dispense  with  the  steam- 
engine  in  the  making  of  electricity,  the  mechanical 
energy  of  the  world  will  be  multiplied  seven  times.  Many 
of  the  cleverest  and  most  earnest  engineers  and  chemists 
are  now  striving — mostly  in  secret — to  obtain  this  great 
result.  Edison  confidently  predicts  that  the  discovery  will 
come. 

When  this  immense  saving  of  fuel  has  been  effected,  the 
great  Atlantic  steamers  will  only  need  a  coal-bin  which  will 
hold  two  hundred  and  fifty  tons  of  coal,  instead  of  one  for 


120  ORE-MILLING,    ETC. 

three  thousand,  to  carry  them  across  the  Atlantic.  Much 
greater  speed  will  then  be  attained,  and  far  less  expense 
to  the  public  will  be  the  pleasing  result. 

Edison  does  not  believe  in  the  necessity  for  capital 
punishment.  '  There  are  wonderful  possibilities  in  each 
human  soul,'  he  says,  '  and  I  cannot  endure  a  method  of 
punishment  which  destroys  the  last  chance  of  usefulness.' 

But,  notwithstanding  this,  he  has  been  induced  to  make 
many  experiments,  with  a  view  to  cutting  off  the  lives  of 
criminals  who  would  otherwise  be  hanged,  by  the  more 
merciful  and  rapid  death  from  electricity.  As  usual, 
success  has  crowned  his  endeavours,  and  '  electrocution '  is 
steadily  winning  precedence  as  the  least  objectionable 
form  of  judicial  killing. 


CHAPTER     XIX. 

conclusion — edison's  present  surroundings. 


ESIDES  his  large  establishments  at  Orange, 
N.J.,  Edison  has  also  a  smaller  place  at  Fort 
Meyers,  Florida,  where  he  is  supposed  to  go  for 
recreation,  although  even  there  he  cannot  leave  his  work 
behind,  and  so  has  a  small  but  complete  laboratory 
attached  to  it. 

In  the  roomy  and  pleasantly  situated  house,  and  large, 
undulating  gardens,  studded  with  tropical  palms  and  rich 
in  all  kinds  of  flowering  plants,  Edison's  father,  Mr  Samuel 
Edison,  and  Mr  James  Symington,  a  friend  of  thirty-seven 
years,  spend  a  large  portion  of  their  time.  Mr  Edison, 
senior,  is  ninety  years  of  age,  but  hale  and  well  in  mind 
and  body.     He  delights  in  gardening,  and  is  to  be  seen 


EDISON  S    PRESENT   SURROUNDINGS.  121 

busy  at  work  early  in  the  morning  and  through  the  hottest 
hours  of  the  day. 

Edison's  biographers  tell  us  that,  on  one  of  his  visits  to 
Fort  Meyers,  Edison  offered  to  supply  the  town  with  a 
system  of  electric  lighting,  if  the  Meyerites  would  furnish 
the  poles.  This  generous  offer,  which  any  other  corpora- 
tion with  a  modicum  of  sense  would  have  been  only  too 
pleased  to  accept,  was  languidly  refused  by  the  inhabitants 
of  the  place. 

Far  and  wide  as  the  electric  light  has  extended,  there 
are  in  many  other  places  besides  Fort  Meyers  sundry 
influences  which  tend  to  keep  it  back.  Speaking  of  those 
at  present  prevailing  in  Europe,  Edison  said  to  a  recent 
interviewer  :  '  I  think  the  gas  interests  have  still  a  lease  of 
life.  In  my  opinion  those  who  have  had  the  making  of 
the  laws  and  regulations  relating  to  the  electric  lighting 
industry,  perhaps  guided  by  the  supply  companies  them- 
selves, have  managed  to  get  it  off  the  right  track,  and  now 
nearly  all  the  operating  companies  are  on  a  wrong  business 
basis  for  any  rapid  development.  Nowadays  the  chief 
concern  of  the  station  manager  is  to  grind  out  as  much 
current  as  possible  for  every  pound  of  coal  he  burns.  He 
gets  economical  boilers,  engines,  and  generators,  and 
studies  their  arrangement.  These  are  so  near  the  practical 
limits  of  their  perfection  that  only  a  two  or  three  per  cent, 
improvement  can  be  expected ;  and  so  long  as  the  station 
has  a  fair  load,  shows  a  good  efficiency,  and  does  not  have 
breakdowns,  every  one  appears  satisfied.  The  consumer 
grumbles  at  the  cost  of  electric  lighting,  but  pays  his  bill ; 
the  shareholder  pockets  his  small  dividend,  and  the 
manager  is  happy.  They  are  selling  current  by  Board 
of  Trade  units,  although  in  competition  with  gas;  it  is 
light  the  public  wants,  not  amperes.     Let  them  produce 


122  EDISON'S    PRESENT    SURROUNDINGS. 

more  light — more  candle-power — per  horse-power  hour. 
I  will  grant  the  difficulty  of  fixing  a  "  unit  of  light,"  but  it 
is  not  necessary  to  do  so ;  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  charge 
from  the  meter  indications  for  the  lamp  hours  delivered. 
If  the  station  simply  receives  payments  for  volts  delivered, 
it  has  no  inducement  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  lamp. 
The  companies  will  even  frown  upon  the  inventor,  or  lamp 
manufacturer,  who  gives  the  consumers  lamps  taking  half 
as  much  current,  because  that  lessens  their  demand  and 
the  total  consumption ;  in  fact,  it  is  to  the  station's  interest 
to  see  lamps  chewing  as  much  current  as  the  poor  con- 
sumer will  pay  for.  At  the  same  time  lamp  improvements 
are  kept  back  because  the  efficient  lamp  is  a  short-lived 
one,  and  to  educate  the  vast  public  to  study  their  meter 
bills  instead  of  their  lamp  bills  is  a  slow  and  tedious 
process.  To  an  ordinary  householder  each  thirty  cents 
spent  on  a  lamp  is  an  evident  out-of-pocket  expenditure. 
His  main  idea  is  to  get  the  lamp  that  requires  replacement 
least  often.  Who  is  to  blame,'  he  asked,  'the  business 
man  or  the  professor,  for  the  conditions  you  can  find  in 
London  of  an  alternating  plant  occupying  a  certain 
confined  area,  in  which  the  copper  put  down  in  the 
transformers  alone,  leaving  out  any  distributing  wire,  is 
over  and  above  ample  to  give  a  complete  and  magnificent 
system  of  distribution,  had  a  complete  low-tension  system 
been  employed  instead?  Was  it  not  lack  of  unity?  With 
regard  to  the  direct  low-tension  system,  Mr  Edison  declared 
that  he  had  not  changed  his  opinion  one  iota.  Alternating 
systems  may  have  their  field — they  are  explorative — and 
perhaps  a  necessary  development  just  now ;  but  the  cream 
of  the  electrical  business  is  in  the  large  towns,  and  I 
believe  all  these  centres  can  be  best  supplied  with  direct 
low-tension   three-wire   systems.     With   the   present   one- 


edison's  present  surroundings.  123 

hundred-volt  lamp  we  are  able  to  give  service  within 
one  mile  radius,  or  say  over  an  area  of  four  square  miles. 
The  largest  town  would  not  want  many  such  stations.' 

Edison's  magnificent  northern  home  is  Glenmont,  in 
New  Jersey.  It  consists  of  an  extensive  and  superbly 
appointed  house,  which,  built  of  brick,  stone,  and  wood, 
abounds  in  gabled  roofs,  picturesque  nooks  and  angles, 
carved  balconies,  and  richly  hued  stained-glass  windows. 
Beautiful  grounds,  fitted  up  with  rare  shrubs  and  much 
that  can  delight  the  eye,  surround  this  spacious  building. 

Edison  married  a  second  time,  a  beautiful  young  girl, 
who  has  borne  him  two  little  ones,  Madeline  and  Charles. 
They  and  his  elder  children — the  elder  boy  is  learning  to 
be  an  inventor  in  his  father's  laboratory — have  at  Glen- 
mont  a  beautiful  and  stately  home. 

There,  with  all  that  wealth  can  buy  to  make  life  enjoy- 
able, it  is  pleasant  to  think  of  this  hard-working  man,  who 
began  his  career  under  such  great  disadvantages  as  a  poor 
newspaper-boy,  and  worked  his  way  up  the  ladder  of  fame 
as  bravely  and  steadily  as  any  man  on  earth,  resting 
sometimes,  and  enjoying  the  happiness  of  his  dear 
ones,  as  he  lavishly  bestows  upon  them  the  treasures  won 
by  almost  superhuman  efforts. 

At  beautiful  Glenmont,  on  the  occasion  of  a  juvenile 
party  being  given  in  honour  of  Edison's  daughter  Madeline, 
the  great  electrician  gave  a  brilliant  display  of  his  electric 
light. 

Many  incandescent  bulbs  stained  in  a  variety  of  exquisite 
colours  were  hidden  amongst  the  crystal  fringes  and  stal- 
actites of  the  great  chandeliers,  and  so  connected  with  the 
sources  of  electrical  supply  as  to  throw  out  divers  sheets  of 
ruby,  sapphire,  amethyst,  and  gold,  in  a  manner  like  the 
illumination  of  St  Peter's  at  Rome.     In  the   life-cake,  a 


124  EDISON  S   PRESENT   SURROUNDINGS. 

brilliantly  sparkling  structure  of  fairy  towers  and  chatelaines, 
foliage  and  frosted  bloom,  a  single  electric  bulb  was 
placed,  which  glowed  like  a  sea  of  light  in  a  setting  of 
minor  gems  made  of  a  fringe  of  tiny  incandescent  lamps 
not  much  larger  than  drops  of  dew. 

Edison's  biographers  graphically  describe  their  visit  to 
him  at  Glenmont.  Upon  arriving  there,  after  mounting 
some  steps  they  were  shown  into  a  luxuriously  furnished 
entrance-hall,  which  seemed  to  serve  as  a  general  loung- 
ing-place  for  the  whole  family.  There  was  a  huge  old- 
fashioned  fireplace,  heaped  up  with  logs  and  provided 
with  large  andirons.  The  windows  in  the  hall  and  on  the 
grand  staircase  were  of  richly-coloured  glass.  Passing  up 
this  staircase,  which  was  of  polished  mahogany,  the  visitors 
went  into  the  dining-room,  '  rich  with  carvings  of  oak  and 
mahogany,  hunting  and  pastoral  scenes,'  and  on  to  Mr 
Edison's  private  sitting-room  at  the  other  side. 

The  great  man  was  sitting  in  a  deep  armchair.  His 
deafness  was  worse  than  usual  that  day,  as  he  was  not 
feeling  well,  and  had  been  taking  quinine — which  was  bad 
for  his  hearing — so  he  did  not  know  visitors  were  in  the 
room  until  he  was  aroused  to  receive  them.  Then  he 
looked  round  from  behind  a  New  York  periodical,  with  a 
face  illumined  with  good-nature  and  kindly  feeling,  and 
greeted  them  warmly.  They  felt  the  pathos  of  the 
situation,  as  they  said  afterwards,  in  thus  finding  the  man 
'to  whom  we  owe  such  an  immeasurable  debt  in  the 
extension  of  our  physical  powers,  thus  patiently  enduring 
the  isolation  of  his  soundless  prison.'  Apropos  of  this,  it 
is  good  to  hear  from  a  more  recent  visitor  that  Mr  Edison's 
hearing  has  improved  during  the  past  year,  owing  perhaps 
to  his  perfect  physical  condition. 

His  room  seemed  to  be  a  favourite  resort  of  the  whole 


"5 

family,  whose  tastes  were  shown  in  several  ways.  There 
was  a  Weber  piano  of  much  sweetness,  an  organette  or 
mechanical  organ,  a  magic  lantern,  a  phonograph,  and 
several  revolving  bookcases  well  filled  with  scientific  works. 
On  the  mantel-piece  were  ornaments  which  were  gifts  from 
the  Emperor  of  Russia,  the  Society  of  Engineers  in  Japan, 
and  so  on. 

Mrs  Edison,  '  her  queenly  head  crowned  with  an  aureole 
of  nut-brown  hair,'  and  clad  in  a  gown  of  pearl  and  silver 
draperies  which  well  showed  her  pretty  figure,  graciously 
pointed  out  to  the  visitors  her  husband's  medals  and 
decorations.  Amongst  these  were  the  Prince  x\lbert  gold 
medal  from  the  London  Society  of  Arts,  the  three  degrees 
of  the  Legion  of  Honour — officer,  chevalier,  and  com- 
mander— the  bronze  medal  of  the  Photographic  Society 
of  France  given  to  him  because  of  his  kinetograph,  the 
order  of  the  Commander  of  the  Crown  of  Italy,  and  medals 
from  Boston  and  New  York  Institutes,  and  from  the 
exhibitions  of  Sydney,  Melbourne,  Milan,  the  Crystal 
Palace,  and  Paris. 

In  an  interesting  scrap-book  are  many  autographic  letters 
of  great  interest,  amongst  which  is  the  record  of  a  message 
from  the  Queen  of  Italy,  phonographically  received  by  Mr 
Edison,  on  the  occasion  of  his  visiting  Europe  with  Mrs 
Edison  for  the  purpose  of  going  to  the  Paris  Exhibition  in 
1889.  It  contains  the  words:  ' Women  everywhere  owe 
to  Mr  Edison  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  for  giving  them  the 
means  of  bringing  near  to  them  the  very  voices  of  loved 
ones  who  are  far  away.' 

It  was  on  the  occasion  of  that  visit  to  Paris  that 
Madame  Carnot  placed  the  presidential  opera  box  'at 
Monsieur  and  Madame  Edison's  disposal,'  and  the  recep- 
tion accorded  to  them  at  the  opera  was  most  enthusiastic. 


126  edison's  present  surroundings. 

Three  boxes  had  been  thrown  into  one,  the  house  was 
hung  with  American  flags  and  national  colours,  and  as  the 
Edisons  entered,  the  orchestra  struck  up  the  national 
anthem  of  America.  As  soon  as  the  opera  was  over,  the 
audience  hastily  left  the  place ;  and  when  the  Edisons 
reached  the  brilliantly  lighted  boulevard,  they  were  sur- 
rounded with  a  great  crowd  shouting,  '  Vive  Edison  !' 

After  this  brief  glimpse  of  the  adulation  paid  to  success- 
ful genius  by  the  denizens  of  the  Parisian  world,  Edison 
returned  to  America,  to  his  beautiful  home  and  to  his 
hard-working  life  in  his  great  laboratories. 

Mr  Edwards  tells  us  that  when  Edison  was  congratu- 
lated upon  attaining  his  forty-sixth  birthday,  he  said  that 
he  did  not  measure  his  life  by  years,  but  by  achievements 
or  by  campaigns,  and  that  he  looked  forward  to  no  period 
of  lest,  believing  that,  for  him  at  least,  the  happiest  life  is  a 
life  of  work. 

And  in  speaking  of  his  campaigns,  he  remarked  :  '  I  do 
not  regard  myself  as  a  pure  scientist,  as  so  many  persons 
have  insisted  that  I  am.  I  do  not  search  for  the  laws  of 
nature,  and  have  made  no  great  discoveries  of  such  laws. 
I  do  not  study  science  as  Newton,  and  Kepler,  and  Fara- 
day, and  Henry  studied  it,  simply  for  the  purpose  of 
learning  truth.  I  am  only  a  professional  inventor.  My 
studies  and  experiments  have  been  conducted  entirely 
with  the  object  of  inventing  that  which  will  have  com- 
mercial utility.  I  suppose  I  might  be  called  a  scientific 
inventor,  as  distinguished  from  a  mechanical  inventor, 
although  really  there  is  no  distinction.' 

Speaking  of  the  campaigns  and  achievements  by  which 
he  measured  his  life,  the  great  electrician  mentioned  first  the 
stock-ticker  and  the  telephone,  upon  the  latter  of  which  he 
had  worked  very  hard,  but  said  he  looked  upon  the  phono- 


EDISON  S    PRESENT    SURROUNDINGS.  1 27 

graph  as  the  greatest  of  his  achievements  in  the  early 
part  of  his  career.  'That,'  he  said,  'was  an  invention 
pure  and  simple.  No  suggestion  of  it,  so  far  as  I  know, 
had  ever  been  made ;  and  it  was  a  discovery  made  by 
accident,  while  experimenting  upon  another  invention, 
that  led  to  the  development  of  the  phonograph.'  Then  he 
went  on  to  say  that  the  second  campaign  was  the  invention 
of  his  incandescent  lamp,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the 
first  lamp  of  the  kind  which  became  commercially  valuable. 
He  worked  about  three  years  upon  that,  he  said,  and  some 
of  his  experiments  were  very  delicate  and  very  costly. 
That,  he  estimated,  had  been  so  far  his  chief  achievement, 
as  it  certainly  was  the  first  one  which  made  him  independ- 
ent and  left  him  free  to  begin  other  campaigns  without 
the  necessity  of  calling  in  outside  capital,  or  of  finding  his 
invention  subject  to  the  manipulations  of  Wall  Street.  '  I 
am  now  fortunate  enough,'  he  continued, '  to  have  capital 
of  my  own,  and  that  I  shall  use  in  these  campaigns' 
(his  campaigns  in  the  future). 

People  who  are  not  Christians  are  fond  of  asserting  that 
the  scientific  mind  is  opposed  to  belief  in  God.  But 
Edison  is  a  direct  refutation  of  this. 

One  day,  when  he  was  talking  to  Mr  Lathrop,  he  said, 
'  I  do  not  believe  that  matter  is  inert,  acted  upon  by 
an  outside  force.  To  me  it  seems  that  every  atom  is 
possessed  by  a  certain  amount  of  primitive  intelligence. 
Look  at  the  thousand  ways  in  which  atoms  of  hydrogen 
combine  with  those  of  other  elements,  forming  the  most 
diverse  substances.  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  they  do  this 
without  intelligence?  Atoms  in  harmonious  and  useful 
relation  assume  beautiful  or  interesting  shapes  and  colours, 
or  give  forth  a  pleasant  perfume,  as  if  expressing  their 
satisfaction.' 


128  edison's  present  surroundings. 

'  But  where  does  this  intelligence  come  from  ? '  he  was 
asked. 

The  answer  was  ready  :  '  From  some  power  greater  than 
ourselves.' 

Then  the  other  asked,  'Do  you  believe,  then,  in  an 
intelligent  Creator,  a  personal  God  ? ' 

'  Certainly,'  replied  Edison  •  '  the  existence  of  such  a 
God  can,  to  my  mind,  almost  be  proved  from  chemistry.' 

Mr  Edwards  reports  also  that  he  said  to  him,  '  I  tell  you 
that  no  person  can  be  brought  into  close  contact  with  the 
mysteries  of  nature,  or  make  a  study  of  chemistry,  without 
being  convinced  that  behind  it  all  there  is  supreme  intelli- 
gence. I  am  convinced  of  that,  and  I  think  that  I  could, 
perhaps  I  may  sometime  demonstrate,  the  existence  of  such 
intelligence  through  the  operation  of  those  mysterious  laws 
with  the  certainty  of  a  demonstration  in  mathematics.' 

It  is  a  fitting  thing  that  he  to  whom  the  Almighty  has 
vouchsafed  such  great  gifts  of  power  and  knowledge,  gifts 
which  bear  fruit  oftentimes  so  like  the  ancient  miracles, 
should  thus  bear  witness  to  the  One  greater  than  himself, 
who  alone  creates  and  disposes  of  every  creature,  animate 
or  inanimate,  in  his  whole  world. 

And  here  we  must  leave  Edison.  Marvellous  as  have 
been  his  achievements  in  the  past,  the  future  is  for  him 
bright  with  possibilities.  He  himself  has  said,  '  I  think  the 
world  is  on  the  eve  of  grand  and  immense  discoveries, 
before  whose  transcendant  glories  the  record  of  the  past 
will  fade  into  insignificance.' 


i< 


THE   END. 


Edinburgh  : 
Printed  by  W.  &  R.  Chambers,  Limited. 


DATE  DUE 

FPR    -  P 

rco        o 

£-V_-  xj  O 

MAI?  D 

3  2002 

UNIVERSITY  PRODUCTS,  INC.   #859-5503 

BOSTON  COLLEGE 


3  9031  021  37231  3 


